


Oath of Allegiance

by Sefeia



Series: Oath of Allegiance [1]
Category: Touhou Project
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-03-27 19:44:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 60,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13887846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sefeia/pseuds/Sefeia
Summary: Ever wondered what happened with Chen at the start of it all and how Ran met her? The day came when Ran finally was able to create Chen thanks to Yukari's help. But... there's something not quite right with the ritual that went underway.





	1. The Fantastic Legend of Tōno

To start the story off, we are here at the Yakumo house. Ran Yakumo had just been doing work for her master, Yukari, and has just gone into the building, panting.

"Back again? That was fast," Yukari says, as she is drinking her tea as Ran slowly starts to sit down onto a chair. She continues, "you look tired", she says as she passes some food over to Ran, "here, eat".

Ran Yakumo, exhausted, replies with "if it wasn't for you and your errands, I would still be full of life."

Yukari smiles, "well, you are my shikigami. You have no choice but to obey me now…" she says as she winks, "... do you?"

This causes Ran to wonder because of Yukari's words, as she "accidentally" forgot that she was her shikigami.

Yukari, looking at Ran, says "yes?" to which Ran says "I suppose I am" in a displeased sense.

Yukari begins to wonder herself and begins to have a plan for Ran. "Hmm, I think I might have something for you", she thinks to herself as she opens up a gap and she then begins to say something to Ran again, which is another errand. "Now then, I want you to do something else for me," says Yukari.

Ran Yukari is still exhausted at this point and was sort of displeased with Yukari comment as she thought she was giving her another errand to fulfil. "Again? What do you want me to do now?" Says Ran, "do your shopping? Do house work? Swat Cirno?"

Yukari then starts to put her hand down the gap and begins to take out a bottle of sake and then she closes the gap. While she does this, she says this to Ran, "I want you to go out and get me an animal. Just any wild animal and not a youkai."

Ran Yakumo becomes even more concerned, "You have got to be joking…," as she thinks to herself. But given that she is a Shikigami, she has to obey her Master, regardless. So she waits to listen to what Yukari has to say.

Yukari begins to pick up her green tea and bottle and sake and goes to another room. But just before she does, she begins to say something to Ran about her errand, "I am going to wash myself. See you when you get back." That is when she then leaves the room, as does Ran.

Meanwhile, somewhere outside, presumably a forest, Ran is searching for an animal to please Yukari, since Yukari said that she wanted one. Ran thinks to herself, "This is so strange. Why must I look for an animal? I am not a nogitsune anymore."

As she looks around, she finally sees an animal, as cat as it were. After spotting the cat, she thinks to herself again, "That should do. I am not waiting all day just picking and choosing." She begins to walk slowly towards the cat, teasing it a little bit just to get its attention. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," Ran says, as she tries to get the cat. But the cat in question starts to run off and Ran starts to pounce on it only to miss. Ran sighs, "this is so demeaning."

Just then, someone appears to Ran and says this to her, "oh, my, my. Haven't you fallen?" Ran quickly realises who it was and begins to talk back as she looks at the person, who happens to be Mamizou, in a weird way, "great… A Bunbuku appeared."

Mamizou, not amused by that remark, begins to twitch her cheek and says "I see you are still treating me in that way, dear."

Ran talks yet again to the person. "What do you want?" She says, wanting a response. "Oh, I was just strolling around the forest," Mamizou says, " Can't a lady do that every once in awhile?"

Ran begins to think "something tells me that it is more than just that" and then begins to move away.

Mamizou then begins to laugh and a bullet begins to appear into her hand. "I will leave you do your… prey," she says.

Ran, knowing what the person is doing, produces Kitsunebi on each of her tails. "I would not do that if I was you," she says, as Mamizou's bullets disappear along with Ran's Kitsunebi shortly after. "Yes, look for your prey. I will be there to take it away from you," as Mamizou thinks to herself.

Ran sighs, "where is it," she says to herself as she is looking for the cat. She eventually finds the cat. After doing so, she begins to move closer to it and then quickly tries to catch it. The cat was trying to sleep at the time, so it was easy for her to catch it unawares, despite the cat struggling to break free when Ran caught it. Ran begins to head home, "this better not be a waste of time," she says, "what does Yukari want with an animal?"

At the Yakumo house, Ran has just returned. "Back? And I see that you have something," says Yukari to a tired-looking Ran as she is drinking her sake. " I have what you wanted. Now what?" Responds Ran.

"Hmm…", Yukari replies as she is putting her sake to one side, "put it on the table." Ran is confused about what Yukari said because it was such an odd request. "O… K…," as she says whilst putting the animal on a table.

It was at this point that Yukari, whilst sipping on her sake, says something really out of place, "and now, kill it." Ran looks at Yukari in a funny sense, "you have to be joking," she says as Yukari responds in a more serious manner, "seriously, I am not."

"Alright, then," Ran says and then thinks "poor thing". She points a finger at the cat and begins to call the name of her spell card, "Fox-Tanuki Youkai Laser". A blue laser shoots out of her finger and goes right through into the cat and the cat dies.

Yukari drinks some more sake. "Good", she says, "now I want you to transfer your blood to it…" just as she gets a syringe, she continues, "... with this."

Ran is surprised at the fact that Yukari had a syringe. "Where did you get that?" She says. Yukari winks and says, in an unconvincing manner, "I just found it laying around." Ran, however, saw through Yukari's lie and responds to it with "don't lie!"

Yukari then sniggers, and because Ran is wasting her own time and with Yukari being more knowledgeable than Ran, Yukari knew that if she was not fast enough, she would lose her chance at getting her own shikigami. "You better hurry up," she says, trying to rush Ran.

Ran takes the syringe and places it into her arm after pulling her sleeve up. She then takes blood out, after which she takes the syringe out and puts it into the cat, injecting it. She then says "Why are you making me do this?" Yukari then responds with, "so you can have a shikigami of your own."

At this point, Ran becomes surprised at what Yukari said because she could not believe what she just heard. "Do you really mean it!?" She says.

"I feel like it is about time for you to have one. Your power is impressive after all. You should be able to create and control your very own. This is the method used to produce them," says Yukari, as she smiles.

At the moment, Ran begins to take the syringe out from the cat's arm. Yukari continues with, "now you just need to transfer your own energy into it. Make sure that you are using an adequate amount,"

"Erm… OK," says an obedient Ran. She then begins to place her hand on the dead cat and begins to use Shikigami's Shot "Ultimate Buddhist" on it. She continues to do that for quite a while, putting more energy into the cat. She then stops and begins to pant. "There. I think that should be enough," she says, "but nothing has happened."

"Oh, something will happen. You will know it when you see it," says Yukari.

A few moments later a tail begins to split and it continues to split until it looks like just two tails. The cat then starts to shapeshift, the body getting bigger along with the limbs. Fur starts to fall out and the paws begin to look more human-like. The tail and ears also get bigger until eventually, a small humanoid girl is formed.

Yukari, pleased that it was done, says "There you have it" Looks does not look as content and begins to wonder as she looks at Yukari, "This… This is it? But she looks small. Wasn't my power enough?"

Yukari begins to agree that the Shikigami was not how she wanted it to be. "Well, it is a little disappointing, I must admit," she says. Ran begins to shout, "A LITTLE!?"

The humanoid cat then starts to wake up, the wound that Ran inflicted healed itself.

The unnamed shikigami begins to wake up and talk, "Uhh… Uh…," she says as she is looking around, "Where am I?" She then begins to look at her own hands and begins to think that something is amiss, "Wha... what am I?," she says in disbelief.

Yukari looks at the shikigami and begins by saying "ah… I see she is awake." "Who are you?," The shikigami says. "This is Yukari and I am Ran. And you are?," responds Ran.

The shikigami then responds by saying this to her, "I… I do not have a name."

It was at this time that Ran decided to give her a name of her own, since she said that she did not have one, so she responds with " hen how about I call you something? Let me see… How about I call you "Chen"?"

Yukari opens up a gap and begins by saying, "Chen seems fine to me," hinting that she is fine with the name. " I am just going to get some clothes. Let me see, where are they?" She says as she put her hand into the gap and is trying to find some clothes. "Ah here they are," she says as she takes out some closes from the gap and then closing it, "Ta-da!"

"Chen... Chen…" She says to herself, listening to her new name, "Chen…" She then closes her eyes and begins to talk again and says "it is a nice name." Yukari then gives Chen the clothes that she took out from the portal. "Put these clothes on," she says. Chen then gets up from the table and starts to put them on after a moment.

Ran begins to notice something. "A pink dress? Oh, I get it. So that is where you got that syringe from…," as those thoughts entered her head. Chen then becomes tired, going "hmm… I am sleepy" and then falling to the floor shortly after.

"It seems like she was worn out like me. Was that much really necessary?," Ran asks Yukari. Yukari then responds by saying, "In order to have a good, healthy Shikigami you need a good amount of energy, otherwise it will just result in a failure. The technique is called "Yuketsu""

Ran is confused by this. "Yu… ketsu?," she says.

Yukari then responds with a smirk, saying "That is it!" She continues, " But listen, Ran, now that you have your own shikigami, you must protect it. Your life will never be the same again.

Several hours pass.

Ran comes into the room that Chen was in to tell her that dinner is ready, since she felt like she needed to eat, only to find that she is missing. "That little…," she says. She then goes to find Yukari and when she manages to find her, says "Yukari, my shikigami is missing!"

On a chair with her fist-made hand against her cheek and chin, Yukari then responds with "Missing? What do you mean?"

"She vanished! She is not in the room that she slept in," says Ran, answering Yukari.

Yukari takes her hand away from her face and stands up and makes a remark, "Really? That is interesting…"

Ran looks concerned at this point and says, "What? So she really was defective?" Yukari begins to talk, saying " I really…" But before she could finish her sentence, Ran runs out of the building. Yukari sighs, saying "good grief."

Meanwhile, somewhere outside, Chen is walking along a forest-like area and heading towards a lake. " What is this place?" She says as she looks around in wonder and then stops only to look at herself, "Did I die? Is this… the afterlife?" After questioning herself, she falls to the ground. "So weak…" she says as she begins to cry, "Just… just so weak…" She then looks at her own reflection in the lake and is shocked at what she sees. "Just what am I!?" She says as she then puts her hands on her face, "just what am I? I am just…," to which, she begins to cry again, "... I am just a monster! She then looks up and sees mountains ahead and then suddenly stops crying and says, "those giant hills look look nice." She then gets up and starts to walk towards them, but slowly and carries on talking, saying "So pretty. So… So…" before tripping over.

Just then a gap appears and Yukari is seen through it. She then moves her head towards the outside and puts the back of her hand against her chin and makes it looks like surrogate support to rest it on.

"Well, well. So this this is where you were. Been a naughty girl, haven't you? Leaving the house like that unnoticed." Says Yukari.

Chen, looking at Yukari, then responds with, "please, just go. I want to be alone," indicating to Yukari that she wants to be alone. Yukari tries to convince Chen and says, "You are confused, I know. But Ran is your master and she help you." Chen questions this. " I have a… master?" She says. Yukari closes her eyes and smiles, "of course," she says.

Further questioning from Chen, "then, who are you?" Wanting to find the answers to things. Yukari explains herself, " I am a youkai just like you. I am Yukari and I am your master's master," she says. This puzzles Chen, to which she says to Yukari, "Youkai? Like me?"

After saying that, all of sudden there is movement in the nearby forest.

"But… " says Chen, as she is looking at the ground, "So it is true, I am dead. This is not me… THIS is not REALLY me!"

Yukari then says more to Chen, putting more words of wisdom into her own existence and hoping that she will begin to understand, " You are still you. You are just an, let's say, improved version of your former self. Yes, it is true that you died, but look at yourself now. You can breathe, you can touch, you can probably be hungry. You are even talking to me. Do not see this as the afterlife. No… this is Gensokyo. Your home, your birthright. "

Chen closes her eyes and sways her head, "I… I don't know. You say I died, so I must be dead still. I do not think I can believe that I am still alive. This all feels like some sort of dream," she says, as a tear rolls down her face, "How can my "master" help me?" She then looks at Yukari and continues, "Tell me!"

Just then, a blue laser appears out of a forest and is aimed directly at Chen. Chen managed to sense it beforehand and quickly dodged. Yukari quickly moved out of the away and started to close the gap but before you could, the laser entered it and damaged part of the room that she was in.

Yukari, fallen down from the portal and now in the house, goes into a daze. "There you go again, reckless as usual," she says as she returns to normal and begins to get up off of the floor, "And here's me telling you to take care of her. Please do not go over the top, Ran." She looks at the part of the room that was damaged and continues, "You best not do to her what you did to this room."

Meanwhile, back in the other area.

Chen begins to look at Ran, who starts to emerge from the forest nearby, and questions her by saying "what do you want?"

Ran is seen annoyed and says "I have come to take you home" to Chen.

Chen responds, loudly, with "No!"

Ran explains that Chen does not have a choice in the matter and says, "that is not an option. You will come with me whether you like it or not." Chen continues to shout and says in response to Ran's comment, "I said NO!"

Ran begins to think to herself, "fine then, we will do this another way." A Kitsunebi begins to appear onto her hand and she says a fair warning to Chen, in the sense of a choice, "Either you come with me, or you die right here."

Chen begins to move up into the sky, trying to get away from Ran, Ran then fires her Kitsunebi at her, which she then fails to dodge and part of her body gets damaged.

Ran cringes, "It seems like you really do not see me as your Master. Without me you would not even be here," she says, "But maybe it is because you are a confused newborn. But rejection is something that I am not going to forgive!" She goes up into the sky and starts to use Shikigami's Radiance "Princess Tenko -Illusion-". Bullets appear all around Ran and scatter in a particular direction, which one set of bullets heading straight towards Chen.

Chen, in her condition, starts to move around relatively fast, dodging all of Ran's bullets. She then manages to get close enough to Ran and then lengthens her "claws" and starts to attack Ran. Ran dodges every single one of Chen's attacks and then moves around quickly, hitting Chen with her tails and sending her downwards. Chen then quickly recovers. She then begins to use Yin Yang "Douman-Seiman", which causes her to move in a pentagram-like shape and developing bullets as she travels. All of the bullets go into Ran's direction and they look like they are about to hit, but all of a sudden Ran is protected by a shield and all of the bullets just disappear.

Chen is seen panting severely. Ran begins to think to herself, starting to become rather concerned, "at this rate she really will die." Due to her own concerns, she decides that she does not want to fight anymore since she would only kill Chen. She then tries to command Chen to surrender and says, "just give up, Chen. Just… give… up."

Chen, still panting, rejects the proposal, saying "I told you… No… " in advance. From thereafter, her speech begins deteriorate and she begins to struggle to talk due to her condition, but she tries by saying "I… want to be... alone."

Ran sighs, "then I have no choice," she says, as Kitsunebi begin to appear onto her tails and she then says "and I was really looking forward to having you around as well," dreading that it had to come down to this.

Ran moves her head quickly and notices something about Chen. Chen's breathing suddenly gets deeper and she then quickly moves to Ran's location and striking one of her tails with her "claws". Ran extinguishes her Kitsunebi and her shield suddenly breaks as Ran looks at Chen in shock, moving her head slowly. Chen also sliced into one of her tails, cutting it off. This causes Ran to bleed severely.

Ran then becomes shocked at what happened. She could not believe what just happened. "Why you little…" she says, as she puts her hand onto Chen's forehead and then forcefully pushing her, sending her to the ground, "... BRRRAATTTTT!"

Chen falls to the ground and then rebounds, coughing up a little bit of blood.

Ran begins to cringe as she becomes sore all of a sudden. She thinks to herself, "what was that just now? I am not hurt, yet… I could feel pain?" She then uses her Hoshi-no-Tama to protect the part that had the tail cut off, stopping the bleeding. She also loses altitude as she moves towards Chen. Chen is then seen awake but is still on the ground. Ran continues to persuade Chen to stop, "just give up. You cannot win," she says.

Chen tries to get up off the ground, one eye half closed as the other one is just barely open. Just then, Ran fires another Shikigami's Radiance "Fox-Tanuki Youkai Laser" , this time towards Chen's shoulder, missing her lung. "I said…" Ran says, grabbing the part that she felt a sudden pain which happened near her shoulder, "... give up." Chen then goes unconscious.

Just then, Yukari appears. She sees the injured Chen and begins to say something to Ran, "my, you really did a number on her, didn't you?" To which Ran responds with, "there was no other way. I did not have a choice in the matter," trying to tell Yukari that she had to do that in order to try and stop Chen.

Yukari looks at Ran in a sort of displeased way, "There is always a choice." She continues, "you just need to have a bit of time," informing Ran that she was being far too reckless for her own good.

Ran Yakumo spoke back, saying that she was being disobedient "But you saw her," she says, "she went out on her own accord and she was not willing on being obedient."

Yukari begins to open up her fan and then puts it in front of her face. She then asks Ran a question, "and then what did she do?" Ran is troubled on what to say at this point, giving the response, "Well… Er…"

Yukari, trying to acknowledge the situation, begins to say that Ran was the one who attacked first. "She acted on self-defence alone from thereafter," she then says. "Listen, Ran, she has a mind of her own," she says, trying to get Ran to understand that Chen is not just some mindless doll. It was then that she points to chen and says "This act confirms it. But with what you did…" It was then that she saw why Ran did this to Chen since she assume that Ran only wanted to bring her home and that she wanted to bring her back in her own way.

Ran has nothing to comment at this point whereas Yukari does. "You did not kill her," she says, thinking that Ran never really intended on killing her. She then continues, saying that Ran meant no real harm by what she did, "even I know that you did not want to discard her. Let's just take her back home.

Ran agrees with the idea of going back home and says, "yes, you're right". It was then that she grabs Chen and then flings her over her shoulder. "You still have a lot to learn, Ran," Yukari thinks to herself, squinting her eyes as she does, "much more…"

They both leave the area. Meanwhile, someone else happened to be in the area. Someone just happened to be in the area and this certain person saw the entire event that took place here. The person just so happened to observe situation.

"Well, this is interesting. Very interesting," the person says, as he/she begins to stroke a cat that he/she happens to have with him/her, "What a nice spectacle to see. I would love to have that one as a pet. Would you not agree…" she continues, stroking the cat more and seemingly talking to herself, "my dear Orin?" The cat, supposedly called "Orin" due to what the person just said, begins to meow.

End of chapter

Next chapter: Coexistence


	2. Coexistence

Somewhere along the road on the way to Myouren Temple, Mamizou Futatsuiwa is seen walking towards the Temple and humming to the tune, "Futatsuiwa from Sado."

"Oh, what a lovely day this is," Mamizou says as she is heard chuckling, " It will be nice to get back home. I wonder how my dear Kagi is doing?" Just then, Mamizou begins to stop as she begins to notice something really odd. "Wait…," says Mamizou, in shock of the sight of what's in front of her. " Where has the entrance gone," she questions, as she looks around the area, "no, not just the entrance, THE ENTIRE TEMPLE!" "This cannot be happening," Mamizou slowly begins to bring herself down to the ground, her legs landing firmly onto the ground, "this simply cannot be happening.

Just then, Mamizou heard rustling from within the trees. "Hmm?" She murmurs, as she looks in the direction of where she heard the noise and slowly starts to pick herself up from the ground and stands up. "Who is there?" The rusting gets emitted again and Mamizou sees movement and Mamizou continues, " I know you are there. Come out, whoever you are" and then thinks to herself, "it is probably just a bird or squirrel." Mamizou then turns into the direction of where the temple supposedly was and starts to move and thinks to herself again, wondering what ever happened to Myouren Temple, "now onto this mystery. Just what did happen to Myouren Temple?"

Just then, a figure appears from the trees and jumps towards Mamizou. Mamizou quickly notices and dodges just in time.

"You dodged that well," the person says as he/she begins to straighten him/herself up. Mamizou responds, question the person, "who are you? You should leave." "Does it really matter who I am? Oh yes, that is right. You have never seen me before, have you?" The person responds with and then Mamizou answers with an answer that tells the person that she had never saw him before, "That is because you have never BEEN here before." "Leave! Now!" She demands. The person moves his kasa down a bit, covering his/her face a bit, and says to Mamizou, " I really cannot do that. Not when I have grown so…

Mamizou then attacks the mysterious person. But just as she attacks him/her, he/she disappears and then reappears just behind Mamizou.

Mamizou then begins to wonder what happened and thinks to herself, "what the…?" "Surely a lady like yourself, has time to let others finish their own comments" The mysterious person responds with. Mamizou then turns around to look at the person and informs the person that he is an intruder. "But you are just some shady person, an intruder," she says. The intruder questions Mamizou's own words and begins to snigger. Mamizou then has a good look at the person and examines the person thoroughly, "So, hun, who are you? You look like some youkai to me," she says.

The person stays silent. Mamizou picks up on this and responds by saying, "Being silent now, are you?" She then begins to smile and wink and the continues to speak, Fine then."

Mamizou begins to produce a bullet in her hand and then she fires it at the mysterious person. But then the person suddenly disappears.

This causes Mamizou to wonder as she thinks to herself, "again? What is this person?"

Then suddenly, someone emerges from the forest nearby and moves into the sky. The person begins to bring his/her sword in front of him/her and starts to say something and begins to say something, "Sword Dance Ni: "Light Shower"!"

After bringing his/her sword up, bullets start to appear and as he/she quickly brings his/her sword down, they start to fall down into Mamizou's direction. Mamizou dodges all of them and starts to run in a direction. The bullets then follow her, leaving Mamizou to ascend into the sky.

Mamizou then retaliates by releasing white bullets as well as purple bullets from her spell card, Raccoon Sign "Full Moon Pompokolin". The person then tries to move towards Mamizou, trying to dodge each bullet and also uses his/her sword to try and eliminate the bullets. He/she then gets hit by a bullet, which then causes him/her to fall down.

Mamizou begins to descend and says, "That was simple enough," implying that it was such an easy battle. She then walks up to the person and begins to demand answers, "but that does not mean that I will leave you to it. Who are you? Who sent you? The person begins to get cocky. "I have you right where I want you," he thinks to himself. He/she gets his/her sword and brings it upwards and begins to say something, "Sword Dance Ichi…," to which, he/she then hits the ground with the sword, "... "Shadow from Below"!"

Swords start to come out of the ground and towards Mamizou. Mamizou quickly goes into the air and the person then appears behind her and attacking her with his/her, wounding her slightly via cutting her as she tried to defend herself, and then he/she kicks her, which causes her to fall to the ground.

Mamizou begins to cough. "Ow, my head," she says as she begins to get up off the ground. The mysterious person descends, "I never wanted to fight you to begin with. My own doing was just self-defence because of you," he/she says, trying to clarify himself. Mamizou chuckles, admitting that she was the one who attacked first and says this, "that is true, I did attack you." She continues, "but that is because you are an intruder," saying that she only did it because it was her job to, considering she is Myouren Temple's last line of defence.

The mysterious person begins to sigh and and sway his/her head from side to side, "You are only saying that because you have never seen me before," he/she says. "Never…," Mamizou says as she becomes puzzled, "... seen you before? Well, no, I haven't. Tell me, if you have been here, then why have I never seen you before?".

" I live out here, in the trees," the person explains. "You see, to me, this is my home." Mamizou does not seem to understand the person. Being sceptical, she still says that he should not be here, saying "but "home" is not at the Myouren Temple, now, is it? You still should not be here." The person begins to say "really?" Just then, he/she takes his/her kasa off and continues, "tell that to Byakuren, then."

Mamizou becomes shocked by this. Not because of the person's appearance since she now has a good look at him/her, but at what he/she just said. She questions the person, "who… Just who are you? How do you know Byakuren?" This is where the so-called "intruder" explains him/herself and says this, "I am Yashima Hogo of a place called Takamatsu. And this… this is my home." The person's name is identified as "Yashima Hogo". Mamizou does the same and says, "I am Mamizou Futatsuiwa from Sado. And you said you were from Takamatsu? I have never heard of such a place."

Yashima says that the place is a far away place and continues by saying this, "A place where I lived with my former master." Mamizou becomes intrigued by this, "master?" She says, then thinking of something else, "so you were not sent here by Nue?" This is where it gets a little bit interesting. Yashima is not exactly what Mamizou thought he/she would be. To explain, Yashima had this to say, "I was not sent here by anyone. I am a shikigami, a Bake-danuki shikigami."

"So why are you here? Why not just stay over at… er.. Takamatsu?" Says Mamizou. Yashima then explains why he decided to come to Myouren Temple to begin with, "Byakuren was the one who said that I could come here and I came with her out of my own accord. I am here as the guardian in order to pay my debt to her." With he, he/she implies that he/she is doing this all on whim. Mamizou took note of this and begins by asking him/her something, "and what is this debt, hun?" "I…," he says, hesitating for a bit, "... would rather not go into it."

Mamizou begins to realise something and says, "so if you are the guardian here, how come I have never seen you before?" Yashima begins to talk again, "that is because…" he/she says, as he begins to clear his/her throat, "... I live out here." "As a guardian I am meant to be outside anyway, but I like to live out here instead of the Myouren Temple. I do go into the premise from time to time, though."

Mamizou begins to confirm Yashima's gender, "and you are not a female either," she says, "that's… unusual." She then moves her thoughts over to Myouren Temple. Still confused as to what happened, she questions Yashima, "But why isn't the temple here? There is nothing ahead of us."

Yashima then says " Oh, that…," afterwhich, he begins to click his fingers. After doing that, Myouren Temple starts to materialise. This moment then shocks Mamizou.

"I cannot transform like a bake-danuki should. But to make up for it, I have an ability to create illusions. Myouren Temple has always been here. I just did not allow people to see it," says Yashima as he then begins to jump onto a tree. Mamizou begins to try and get his attention again, "where are you going?" She says.

Yashima puts his kasa back on and responds, "I am going to Myouren Temple for a bit. Talk to you later! But before I go, mind your step! Bye" He then starts to jump from branch to branch and into the premise of Myouren Temple.

Mamizou begins to shout, trying to grab his attention again, "wait a minute," she says and then lowering her tone, she continues to talk, saying that she had queries about him, "I wanted to ask him something. He said he was a shikigami. He said that he lived with his former master. Then this master of his must have created him."

Mamizou covers her wound with her hand and then begins to walk towards the Myouren Temple. But just as she was walking to it, she noticed something about the ground. The ground started to move. Mamizou quickly goes to safety and after that, the ground came apart.

Mamizou begins to look surprised whilst sweating at the same time and begins to laugh nervously, "Aha ha… ha…"

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house, Ran and Yukari come back with the unconscious Chen.

Yukari begins to smile and says, "here we are. Home, sweet home," talking with a sense that shows that she is glad to be back. Ran, however, sighs and is not showing the same mood. "That was tiring and annoying," she says. Yukari responds to Ran with, "hehe, no one said that having fun was bad," which does not make Ran amused at all. She ends up saying "who said that I was having fun?" To Yukari as she is looking at her. "Oh yes, that's right," says Yukari as she opens up her fan and puts it in front of herself, "you were having difficulties.

Ran begins to place the unconscious Chen onto the bed. "Difficulties with controlling your own flesh and blood," explains Yukari. A puzzled Ran then says, "my own flesh and blood? What are you talking about?" She did not even understand what Yukari was talking about. Yukari brings her fan down and tries to explain herself, "A shikigami is not just another entity, it is also a part of you." This does not make things easier for Ran, as she is still puzzled by Yukari. "it is also a part of… me?"

Yukari had this to say, "yes. Tell me, Ran, did anything happen when you were fighting Chen? Did you notice something strange?" "I…," says Ran, as she begins to remember that sensation that she felt when she attacked Chen,"when I attacked her, it felt like I was the one that was damaged. I do not know why but I could feel pain." She begins to remember the time she attacked Chen with her laser. "At that moment…," she begins to grab the part of her where she felt the sensation, "... I could feel a strange feeling right here."

Yukari then notices that Ran did in fact notice something and says, "oh? So you did notice it." Ran still does not know what Yukari is talking about and responds with, "just what are you trying to say?" Yukari goes to get a bandage, "I will tell you in a minute, but first let's get your damaged tail sorted out. And Chen, too." She says.

Yukari, after getting the bandage, then goes to goes to Chen and starts wrapping the bandage over the part that was bleeding due to the laser penetrating her. After that, she then goes to Ran starts to wrap the bandage over the part of the tail that was cut off.

Ran cringes in pain. " I cannot believe this actually happened to you. You can be careless at times, Ran." Says Yukari. Yukari explains how she is about as shock as she is, saying "I am just as shocked as you are. I cannot believe she could be this powerful." So, it seems that even her own shikigami got her surprised.

"Powerful enough to cut your tail? Or do you mean just enough to break your own shield." Says Yukari. This intrigues Ran, " ... How did you know about that?" She says as she tries to demand an answer.

"How else can anyone cut off one of your tails? I said that you can be careless at times but I know well enough that you are well prepared." Yukari, after saying this, finishes off wrapping the bandage around Ran's tail and then says something else, "there, I've finished. You can release your Hoshi-no-Tama, now."

Ran's shield then dissipates.

Ran is still bringing about concerns since Yukari has not been very clear with her. She wanted answers about her shikigami. The ritual that Yukari had her do did something and she did not know what happened or why it happened. "I still do not get it. You told me to put in an adequate amount of power into her for a healthy shikigami. How could this have happened?" Questions Ran.

"Hmm…," goes Yukari as she begins to theorise, "maybe it is because you added too much power." Ran begins to look at Yukari in a weird way. "What!? Bu-but you said…," she says, awkwardly. "I told you to put in enough power. I never said to add more than enough power or less than that. Using less power gives you a weak shikigami…," explains yukari. Ran continues, thinking she knows what Yukair was about to say. So in response, she says, "whilst giving it more power makes it a threat?"

Yukari winks at Ran, hinting that she got it right, saying "you've got it!" She carries on, saying "but luckily for you, I have the perfect solution." That is when she goes to get something and then comes back.

Ran looks at Yukari. "What is it?" She says. Yukari opens the box and explains, "what is inside this box? It is a ring used to control people. Well, earring. It normally gets used on shikigami so that their Masters can keep them in check. Ran becomes concerned, thinking that it is just an earring and nothing more. "But it is just an earring… How is this supposed to help?" She says, unconvinced that this will help her in any given way.

"Silly kitsune. It works like this: all one has to do is put his or her energy into the object. The energy that got transferred acts as a means to keep the power in check by rejecting it, therefore the energy does not pour out," says Yukari, more words of wisdom from such a wise youkai. This leads to more questions and it is Ran who has more questions that needed answering and so she goes to ask this, "but what he it gets taken off? People would not want to be controlled or anything like that. Surely they would at least try to take it off."

Yukari sticks a finger out in front of Ran, starts to move it left and right and also has one eye closed. "That is why I will be putting my power into it and not you," she says.

Yukari puts a hand onto the earring and starts to imbue it with her own power.

After doing that, Yukari has more to say, "you see, with me doing this instead of you, it will reject anyone that tries to even touch it. Anyone but the one whose power it belongs to." "So Chen can never take it off?" Ran questions, and Yukari responds, as she closes her eyes and smiles, with, "exactly!" Ran looks more confused at this point, since she the whole thing makes no sense to her whatsoever. "That does not make sense. That would mean that I have the right to do it," says Ran. Little did Ran know that she was in fact forbidden from actually doing that. This is where Yukari has to explain herself even further. "Your power flows in Chen's veins now. Using your power on such an item would only make things worse," Yukari says, as she adds more explanations.

Yukari Yakumo then goes to Chen and begins to put the earring into her ear, piercing her ear in the process.

After that, Yukari draws her attention to Ran once more. "Now, about what I was talking about before." Upon getting Ran's attention again, she is sort of puzzled by Yukari's comment, saying " About before…?" She then begins to realise what Yukari meant and so carries on by saying "oh, about the occurrence. So, what was that exactly?"

"It was the bond between master and servant," Yukari explains to an eager Ran. Ran begins to squint an eye and says, "what are you talking about?" This is where Yukari becomes even more like a teacher and so she begins to tell Ran a bit more about her role as Master and how her role is important.

"The blood that gets injected into a chosen animal acts as a trigger for this bond that I like to call "Kyōzon". With this, you and the shikigami become one. This means that when your shikigami gets hurt, you too, get hurt. But do not worry. You will not die from this." Ran thinks to herself after Yukari's this, coming to the realisation of something, "so that explains the pain that I got more than once."

Yukari continues, "there are two types of Yuketsu; Ketsuyuketsu and Hāyuketsu. Ketsuyuketsu is the transference of DNA that gets poured in via the blood that you inject. With this, you and the shikigami become one and the shikigami's pain becomes your pain but not the other way around. Your shikigami's death will not result in your death and it is the same if you die. Hāyuketsu is a more serious matter that strengthens the bond between you and the shikigami. It is the transference of the heart and with that, you sort of become immortal."

This gets Ran a little bit interested as the last part of what Yukari said got her wondering, "you become immortal?" Yukari responds with, "in a way, yes." Yukari continues, "the shikigami becomes your heart in other words. As long as your shikigami lives, you live. Any damage you take however, gets inflicted onto your shikigami. But thankfully, he or she will not die from this. Ever. Likewise, if your shikigami takes damage, you take damage. Doing this also gives more power to the shikigami on top of the power that one bestows upon it."

This is where Ran stumbled upon something. Her ears twitch a little bit as a keyword entered her head. "But wait… What did you say before?" Ran says, as she wanted a confirmation on what Yukari just said, as so to believe what she thought she heard was actually what she heard. Yukari looks at Ran with a puzzle expression and she says, "what I said?"

Ran begins to explain what she thought she heard, "what you said… about the shikigami dying. Tell me, what would happen if the shikigami died?" She asks, since she did not hear Yukari clearly when she said this. Yukari responds and her response was not a pleasant one, "that is simple. The master would die." This eerie response shocks Ran. She could not believe what she just heard.

Yukari sort of took note of that and adds more to her words, "that is what makes the Hāyuketsu so much more dangerous. Not only does it increase the chances of an unstable, out-of-control shikigami, but the price for if the shikigami were to die is too great."

"Is that so?" Ran says, as she then looks at Chen. She then begins to think to herself, "no wonder she did not want me to transfer my heart. She must have been concerned about me. Because I am her shikigami." This is where Yukari believes that her work is done, "right, that is me done." She opens up a portal and puts her hand into it. "I'm thirsty after all that," she says, as she takes a bottle of sake out of the portal and then closing the portal.

Ran looks at Yukari in an awkward sense, thinking to herself, "where is she getting those from?" Yukari announces that she is tired. "Not to mention I'm tired," she says while she yawns, "and we still have all that fur to clear up." Rather than letting Yukari do that, Ran volunteers. "I can do that for you, Yukari," she says. Yukari then begins to feels pleased at Ran for wanting to do that for her, as so to save her the trouble, and says, "oh, would you? That would be lovely of you, Ran." She then says more, "but then again, you are my Shikigami," saying that it was her job, giving her role, and she then winks at her.

Yukari Yakumo then leaves the room.

Ran gets a brush and shovel and starts to clear away the fur that fell off of Chen after the procedure was underway. Ran then stops and begins to think.

Ran begins to get bothered by something. She begins to think back when she fought Chen. "That time when I saw Chen…" She then begins to remember the time when Chen moved to her, just before breaking her shield. "At that time, I did not like the look in Chen's eye. Not… one… bit…," she says, feeling a little bit of concern. Thoughts of that battle enter her mind again and then she carries on cleaning soon after. After which, she then goes to Chen and she then looks back at Chen and thinks to herself, "oh, Chen… What am I going to do with you? Now the dress is in a mess and we do not have any spares, all dusty with blood. I might have to see what I can find." Ran then begins to sigh and then leaves the room.

Chen then begins to wake up.

As Chen wakes up, she closely begins to open up her eyes. It was at this moment that she felt relieved. "I'm… I'm alive…," she says, as a tear rolls down her face.

End of chapter

Next chapter: Subterranean Influence


	3. Subterranean Influence

Somewhere near the Yakumo house, after Yukari and Ran both come back to the house after obtaining Chen, two characters are seen observing the house.

"Is this the place?" Says one of the people and another responds with a, "yes, this is the place. This is where I saw her being brought to." The other person questions the other, wondering why they are here. " Why are we here, if you don't mind my asking?" He says asks. The other person denies giving a proper answer, saying "never you mind. Never you mind." In response.

The other person winks and smiles at the other. "Oh, I see," he/she says, "you want another pet, don't you?" The person to whom he/she asked the question to does not say anything and stays silent. "You have me as well as Okuu," the person says, "why ask for anymore? Come on, do not be so cold."

The other person sniggers a little bit and seeing the irony behind the said words, he/she comments with, "coming from you, that is quite funny." "Aww, you know you love us, really. You are just too embarrassed to admit it," says the person, trying to act cute and assume that the person is caring inside. The other person looks at him/her in annoyance, "Oh, shut up, kitten!", he/she says. The other person smiles and closes his/her eyes and mocks the person, "you are so cute when you get mad like this!"

"I will leave you to it, then," the other person says as he/she begins to walk off. The other person wonders, "where are you going?" He/she asks. The other person stops moving and says this, "Home. I was going to be the one to bring our little friend back with us, but I had a little… change of plan. I think it would be much more interesting if a cat does it instead." The other person, presumed to be a cat, opens his/her eyes wide in a shocked expression and says, "Are you serious? But why? Oh, you aren't mad at me, are you? "

"Mad? At you? Please, you are just my play thing." Says the person, implying that there is nothing wrong at all, to which to person replies, "And yet I am the only thing you get to play with! Going into your arms and feeling warm," taking the mick out of the person and then begins to laugh, continuing with, "you just love touching me."

This annoys the person in question and he/she sighs and thinks to him/herself, "I swear I am going to murder that cat one day…," and then says, "just remember what you need to do, Orin."

The other person, Orin, says, "alright, you want me to bring her with us to the Palace of Earth Spirits. Only because I made you sad." She then starts to feel sad, but in a joking sense, "but I would still want to make this one mine," as she thinks to herself. The other person somehow knew what she was thinking and then says, "do not even dare, Orin!" This causes Orin to start sweating and thinks to herself again, "she read my mind."

"I know you too well. But I suppose that it must be in your nature," the person says as he/she begins to shrug, "when you are a cat you are gentle, but as soon as you change back, you act like this. It is always the same with you." Orin tilts her head to a side, closes her eyes and then smiles, "And I plan to keep it that way," she says as she sticks her tongue out, "nya."

"Do not "nya" me!" The person says, implying that she did not want to hear that. Orin then begins to look cute towards the person and says "aww!". The person responds with, "and you can stop with the 'acting cute' coy. Doing that is not going to change my mind. Not at all, not with you." Orin gives the person a devilish look and thinks, "Whoops, I think I might have annoyed her." Assuming that you might have done something wrong.

Caught by surprise yet again, the person, who is revealed to be Satori, says, "and Satori thinks that you should not have done that." Orin begins to look scared by this. "But do not worry…," she says as she gives Orin a smirk, "... you will get your punishment back at the Palace. She then begins to move. Orin tries to persuade the person to stay, saying that she will be good, "bo, don't leave me! I promise I will be good."

Satori then walks off and leaves Orin.

Orin begins to move her mouth a bit to her left and thinks to herself, "now I am all on my own. She then looks at the Yakumo house and thinks again, "I suppose I will wait here until I get a chance to get in and grab that person." She then begins to lick her lips slowly.

Meanwhile, in the Yakumo house, Chen has just woken up after falling unconscious in her battle with Ran.

Chen pulls the blanket over and looks at her body, part of her face covered in a tear. "I really am alive," she says as she then puts her hand against her forehead in a forceful manner and then cries even more, but in a sense of relief. "I really am alive!" she says, emotionally. She continues, "these feelings… What are these feelings that I have? Is this "happiness"? Is this what happiness feels like? Am I relieved? It feels… feels so strange. It does not feel happy at all. It feels like pain." She starts to get up and then starts to ache because of her shoulder. "Ah!" She says, as she then puts her hand against her shoulder. What happened? Am I… hurting? She notices that she had pain in her shoulder, the area that was shot by Ran's laser. She begins to fall down to the bed slowly. "Oh, that's right. I was in a fight. A fight with… my master? How strange, do I really have a master?" She says.

Chen then notices someone in the room. Ran happens to be in the room with her.

"Yes, Chen, you have a master. I am your master. And I created you." Ran says. Chen responds with, "you…," then takes her hands out and looks at them and continues, "... created me?" "Yes, I am your master, your creator. Well, technically I am your "mistress" rather than your master. I am a female after all. But you are not alone. You will not be alone," Ran explains.

This puzzles Chen, "But... Bu-but you tried to kill me." She grips her hands and begins to cringe and continues, "how can I believe you after what you did?"

Ran sighs and says, "you can choose whether to believe me or not." applying that she does not care whether Chen believes her or not. "The fact is…," she says, as she then brings to turn her head to her side, "... I was being reckless." She closes her eyes and continues, "I… I never wanted to kill you." This causes Chen to wonder, "Really?" She asks.

Ran confirms something to Chen, "Yes, that is the truth." She then brings some food in. "Here, I want you to eat this. You must be really weak by now. It is teriyaki chicken and soup. This is the least I can do for you." She says, as she wants to do something right. Chen takes the food and thanks Ran, "Th-thank you, er, Ran?"

Ran responds with, "so you do know who I am," smiling a little bit as she seems happy somehow that Chen knew her name. "Well, I will leave you to it. Eat up and stay well. Don't go running off again," she says as she then leaves the room.

Chen begins to wonder something, "so Ran is my master? The name of my master… is Ran? And this Yukari… She is my master's master? So then, Ran is… is like me? We are the same?" She then notices something on her ear, the earring that was placed by Yukari and says, "something just moved. What was that?" She begins to put her hand on her ear. But as she was doing that, she felt a shock in her hand. "Ah, what was that!?" She says suddenly as she tries to put her hand on her ear again but finds out that she cannot bring her hand any closer. "What is happening? Is there some sort of protection here? A barrier? Why can't I touch my ear?" This causes Chen to become worried. "What did she do to me?, she says, wondering what Ran actually did to her. "Did she put something on my ear? And if she did, why? Why would she do that? This is so strange."

Chen then decides to forget about that and goes to eat the teriyaki chicken that Ran left.

Chen, eating the food, begins to think to herself and thinks about Yukari and Ran begins to make a choice, "I think I will have to stay here and find out why I was made and why I am here. Yukari said I had a Master and Ran said that she was my Master. I must be here to serve her, but why? What happened?" It was at this moment that she stops eating whilst thinking, "I am such a mess. I really, really am such a mess. Is this my torture? Is this my punishment? My existence only to serve someone?" She then goes to have some of the soup, "then I am nothing more than a puppet, something with no free will of its own. I have no life and I can never be loved. And just what am I exactly? I am sure I am a cat, but a cat with two tails?" She thinks, to which she is then sad. She believes her existence is only to serve people and that she does not have a life of her own. She think thinks this about herself, "I was right, I am a monster." Believing again, that she is a monster.

Just then, Orin enters the room.

Orin is seen smiling at Chen. "Enjoying your feast, kitty?" She says. This alarms Chen as she then questions her, "Who are you?" She asks. "Me? Oh, I'm just someone." Says Orin. Chen examines Orin and sees her as being another version of herself and says, "you look a lot like me".

Orin then opens her eyes wide and then closes them a bit, as what Chen said caught her attention. " Do I, now?" She says as she then giggles a bit, "you are funny. But I suppose I do look like you in a way. Chen replies with, "you have ears that stick out and two tails. Are we really the same?

This amuses Orin even more, "You really are funny. I will let you decide for yourself. But this is not why I came. I came…," she says as she begins to get closer to Chen, "... to pick you up." Chen gets concern and does not understand what Orin is saying, "pick me up? What do you mean, "pick you up"? I thought…" She says.

"That is what my master wants…" Orin says as she puts her hand against Chen's cheek, "... and you are going to come with me since that is what my master wishes. "Your master?" A curious Chen asks. She thinks to herself, "then we really are the same."

Orin informs Chen about it, "yes. But she just calls me her "pet"." She then asks Chen a similar question, "that fox girl that I saw before. I'm guessing she is your master?" Chen hears Orin say "fox girl", referring to Ran as that, and questions her, "fox girl? As in Ran? You were there?

"Oh, yes. Oh, you are so innocent," says Orin as she takes her hand away and then moves away from Chen a little bit. "Both me and my Master were there." She continues.

Chen begins to get out of bed, "and she wants me?" She asks. Orin replies back, "yes. I don't know why, but she is really keen on you. She sees her type as "pets". But don't take it as an insult. She means no harm by it." She then notices that Chen's clothes are unappealing to her and comments about them, "and your dress… You really do need a change of clothing. I am sure my my master has some clothes for you."

Chen comments with, "this master of yours. Who is she?" And Orin responds with, "her name is Satori Komeiji. She is a satori, a type of youkai. From looking at you right now, I would say that you are also a youkai." So, Orin's Master is confirmed to be a youkai like Chen's Master.

This puzzles Chen and you wants answers, "I am a youkai? Me? But I am a cat. How can I really be a youkai?" This causes Orin to become stumped. She puts her hand again her chin and starts to think and then says, "maybe Satori can explain it better." She goes up to Chen again. "When you do come…," she says, as she goes closer to Chen and then closes her eyes a bit and begins to smile, "... we can start to have some fun."

Chen becomes worried due to what Orin said and says, "wh-wh-what are you doing? You aren't going to eat me, are you?" She says, not understanding what Orin meant.

Orin begins to laugh hysterically and then tries to stop herself and says, "oops, I mustn't draw attention." How ever she continues to laugh, but with muffled laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" Chen wonders, "is that happiness that you have? Or is that a suffering?"

Orin thinks to herself, "she really doesn't know, does she? She is like an infant. Is this really the type of youkai that Satori is after? She seems… inexperienced. And what is with her mood? It is like that of a lost child." She then begins to talk to Chen, "Oh, me? Just forget that! I just thought of something funny from before, really. But anyway, what will it be? What will you do?"

Chen has a choice, either she comes with Orin or stays where she is. She begins to reply, "OK, I will come with you. But if this is my home, I want to be able to stay here." Orin protests, "what, stay here with a ball and chain, with the purpose of being wrapped around someone's finger?"

In Orin's protest and way to get her to persuade her to come with her, she responds with, "er, well…," she then begins to continually touch her digit fingers with one another and continues, "only if it makes her happy."

"Listen, you come with me and I promise you will be happy," says Orin. This causes Chen to feel happy and she says, "do you mean it? Do you..," she then suddenly starts to cry and continues, "... really mean it?"

Orin tries to comfort her, "hey, shh… No need to cry," she then goes to give Chen a cuddle, "no need to cry. " Chen stops crying after a few sniffles and then says, "OK. OK, I will come with you."

They both start to leave the house.

Outside the Yakumo house however, there is a person nearby.

The person is seen overlooking the house and sees Orin leaving the building with Chen and says this, "ah, I see the dear Shikigami has left the safe haven. How careless of you, Ran." The mysterious figure begins to smirk and continues to talk. "You are making it far too easy for me. All I have to do now is follow her tail. Thank you so much, my sweet, little vixen."

Meanwhile, at Myouren Temple, Mamizou is sleeping at her residence.

Yashima is seen trying to wake up a sleeping Mamizou, "Mamizou… Mamizou… Hey, Teakettle! Wake up!"

Mamizou then begins to wake up, after hearing Yashima, and says, "how many times do I have to tell people? I am not a Bunbu…," she begins to open her eyes and looks at the person in wonder, "... ku. Who are you?

Yashima closes his eyes, giving Mamizou a mischievous look, "Hehe!" He says. He then opens his eyes and continues, having a bit of fun, "Teakettle! Teakettle! Teakettle! Teakettle"!

Mamizou starts to get irritated, "that's enough!", She says as she fires a bullet at Yashima, which Yashima then dodged.

"Wow, that was close," Yashima says after dodging the bullet. Mamizou questions Yashima, not realising who he is, "tell me, just who are you? Yashima giggles a bit. "I'm Yashima, silly," he says. Mamizou begins to wonder, "Yashima?" She says, "as in Yashima Hogo? Stop playing games with me! You do not look that person." She then says, in disbelief. "But it's true," says Yashima.

Mamizou then examines Yashima and says, "you look different and you look… smaller. No, you're not him. You can't be." It was then that Yashima confirms something. Who he is currently was not what he was before when he met Mamizou. "This is my "Child form". What you saw before was my "Adult form"," he says.

A confused Mamizou has this to say, "child and adult forms? So you are saying that you really can transform? You said you couldn't. Are you messing with me?"

Yashima laughs childishly and confesses, "I'm not. I really can't transform."

Mamizou starts to get out of bed, turning to her side and then continues talking, "then what do you call this?"

Yashima ignores the question, "I'm like you! I'm a raccoon dog just like you."

This is when Mamizou starts to get annoyed, so she says, "you aren't listening, dear. I asked…"

Yashima interrupts and becomes rude in the process, "I heard you already, old lady."

Mamizou begins to get agitated and thinks, "Old lady!?" She, furious at this stage, begins to talk, "listen, you… You should not even be here. This is my room. I don't know how you knew I was here, but you need to leave… NOW!"

Yashima begins to wonder and thinks to himself, "did I say something I shouldn't have said? How touchy." He then takes the sake bottle that is wrapped around his body and starts to drink from it.

"You aren't going to leave? Fine," Mamizou says as she then starts to walk towards the door. "If you aren't out of here by the time I get back, I swear I'll kill you, whoever you are."

Yashima begins to stop drinking and tries to convince a sceptical Mamizou, "I told you, I'm..."

Mamizou stops walking, interrupts Yashima and begins to shout, "What you said was just a big lie!" She quietens down a bit, "you aren't Yashima Hogo. Yashima, apart from being a bake-danuki, was slightly taller than you and wore different clothing. The only thing that reminds me of him is that thing that you are wearing on your back." Mamizou then begins to shout again, "also… ALSO, his voice was not the same as yours!" And she then begins to pant.

Yashima, after hearing what Mamizou just said, thinking now that she really does not believe what he is the Yashima that she saw before. But that is when he thinks of something to say, "oh? So you never did examine me properly?"

Mamizou says, "I told you, you are not…," she then notices something, "... Wait… that tail. The look on that tail. It looks the same as his… It looks exactly like Yashima's!"

Yashima closes his eyes and smiles, Mamizou now realising who he really is, and says, "hehe, so you are no longer sceptical? Mamizou starts to get really confused. "But... Bu-bu-bu-bu…," she says.

Yashima begins to take the mick out of Mamizou "Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-Bunbuku!" He then begins to laugh and say more, "Choo-choo!" Acting quite childish. An unamused Mamizou has this to say, "you're really getting on my nerves.

But Yashima did not mean any harm by it and so he says to Mamizou, "I'm only playing with you," and then smiles. .

"So hun, you're Yashima? You are really him? But how?" Mamizou says, questioning him.

Yashima then talks, "and all it took was one look at my tail?" He then looks at his own tail and continues, "yes, it looks nice, doesn't it?" He turns to look at Mamizou, closes his eyes and grins, "I like it, it suits me quite nicely" he says.

But is still confused, even after what Yashima said, since Yashima was not being very clear with her, "but your appearance… I still do not understand your appearance." It was then that Yashima says, "do you like it? It's a little trick of mine."

Mamizou, for some peculiar reason, becomes confused by this. Trick? What do you mean, "trick"?" She questions.

Yashima goes silent for a bit and then starts to talk again, "remember what I told you before?"

"What you told me?" Mamizou asks, to which she then realises something and then starts to remember a moment after encountering Yashima, "from Yashima, "I cannot transform like a bake-danuki should. But to make up for it, I have an ability to create illusions."". "No… No… So this is your…," thinking that she might have realised something.

Yashima begins to laugh for a bit and says, "it looks like you figured it out! 'Bout time."

"I need to think about this," says Mamizou, as she then starts to go outside, "I am going to leave you to it. Just remember to… " She suddenly loses consciousness and falls to the ground.

Yashima then goes to sit on Mamizou's bed and starts moving his legs about in delight, "ha! She fell for it. Quite literally as well," he says, giggling. He then gets off of the bed and starts to walk towards the door. "I think I will go and see how the Umbrella Lady is doing," he says as he nearly bumps nearly bumps into Mamizou and has something to add, "oops! Gotta mind my step."

Yashima then gets out of the building and then picks up the sword that he left outside, next to the door and then starts to walk off.

Yashima then says this, "I better do this quick or I'll get in trouble. Not like it matters anyway. I have LOADS of free time," and begins to smile impishly. A moment later, he is seen arriving at the graveyard. "Well, there it is. I wonder how she is doing?" He comments and then starts to go into the graveyard.

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house.

Ran is outside at this moment in time, drinking tea whilst thinking about what Yukari was saying, "from Yukari: "... now that you have your own shikigami, you must protect it. Your life will never be the same again."" She stops drinking and then sighs, "so this is what she meant when she said that my life would no longer be the same. Why is this happening to me now? Does Yukari really trust me that much?, She says, wondering if Yukari made the right choice in trusting Ran. She starts remembering more of Yukari's words yes again, "from Yukari: "with this, you and the shikigami become one and the shikigami's pain becomes your pain but not the other way around."" She starts to get back up and then begins to decide on something, "I think I know what I must do now. I need to go to Yukari.""

End of chapter

Next chapter: A Heartfelt Youkai


	4. A Heartfelt Yōkai

At the Yakumo house, Ran Yakumo is going to see Yukari.

Ran is seen looking for Yukari and says this to her, "Yukari? Oh, she is not here."

It was then that Yukari began to appear, opening a gap of which she appears out o. "Looking for me, my dear?" She says, giving out a wondrous expression.

Ran becomes a little bit of a shocked by this and asks, "was that really necessary?"

Yukari begins then covers her mouth and closes an eye. "I thought I could have a bit of fun from time to time. It can be boring here at times," she says, as she says this to Ran.

Ran begins to get a little bit serious as she wants to tell Yukari something. "Anyway, I need to ask you something," she says, "something important."

Yukari begins to get out of the gap and then closes it and then talks to Ran again, "oh? Like what?"

Ran has concerns about Yukari. She wonders if she really did the right thing in trusting her with her own shikigami. "Do you really trust me that much. This shikigami, Chen… Do you really have that much faith in me?" She says.

"Listen, Ran, you have enough power to be able to make and control your own shikigami," Yukari says, "I wanted you to do happier. But it was my mistake, I was not being very clear. As a result, I ended up giving you a life worth losing."

Yukari's words cause Ran to wonder. "A life worth losing? What are you talking about?" She wanted a confirmation.

Yukari has this to say as she explains herself, "I mean I made you use too much of your power. Because of this, Chen became unstable. Pouring too much energy into a dead animal is like pouring water into a a cup that is already full; it will eventually pour out. I told you your life would never be the same again because you, yourself, are my shikigami. I have experienced the pain that you felt. But I nurtured you, raised you like a mother."

"But you said that a shikigami would only act like this if I used Hāyuketsu and you did it for me and you did not use it. You used the other method," Ran says, hinting that Yukari did not use the method that is Hāyuketsu, leaving her to believe that what Yukari is saying is making less sense for her.

Yukari responds, "Hāyuketsu is not the only way to make an unstable shikigami… Adding more power than required is another way."

Now that Ran heard what she had to hear, she questions Yukari, "so where does this leave me?"

Yukari goes closer to Ran and puts her hand on her shoulder. "I want you to protect your shikigami. I want you to protect Chen. She is your flesh and blood and at the moment, she should be stable with that earring that I put on her. But you will have to start teaching her things such as controlling her power," she says, taking her hand away.

So Ran says, "so she is like a newborn child?"

Yukari then begins to state the obvious to Ran, "well, she was born only just recently." She then continues, saying yet more explanations, "but she will not know emotions. She probably does not know her purpose in life."

Ran begins to think to herself. "So that is it, then?" she thinks, as she begins to look downwards and carries on thinking, "Yukari, if what you are saying is true, then I am not the only one that is suffering."

"But, if the worst does happen and she does happen to turn on you…," Yukari says, while moving closer to Ran. It was then that she says something shocking in front of Ran, as she carries on, "... I want you to kill her." She then moves away.

This shocks Ran. She could not believe what Yukari just said. "Me? Kill her? Why would you say such a thing, Yukari!?" She says.

"It is for your own good. I really, really cannot afford to lose you." Yukari says, implying that it is something that she needs to do, seeming cold in saying so.

This causes Ran to question her, "cannot afford to lose me? What are you trying to say?"

Yukari begins to turn around and leave the room.

"Yukari," Ran says, as she then begins to shout, "YUKARI!"

A tear rolls down Yukari's face as she then thinks to herself, "please find it in your heart to forgive me, Ran."

Meanwhile, Orin and Chen have arrived at the Palace of Earth Spirits.

"Well, here we are. This is where my master lives," Orin says to Chen.

Chen starts to get a bit sweaty due to the heat in the area. "But there were so many of those sticky things back there. Some of it went on me. It felt horrible." She says, implying that there were cobwebs or something along the way to the Palace.

"Oh, those things?" Orin says, "they are only cobwebs. She should really clean up more often."

Chen then explains the temperature of the area, "and it feels so warm. Why is it so warm?" She questions.

Orin just smiles at Chen, "Is it? I never really noticed," she says, implying that she never realised it before.

A wondering Chen asks, "you… You never noticed? This doesn't bother you?"

"I am a hell cat. This is practically my environment. And it is so hot because, well, we are close to the Hell of Blazing Fires." Orin confirms to Chen.

This puzzles Chen, "Hell of… what?"

Orin begins to repeat herself, "Hell of Blazing Fires, my sweet kitten." She then giggles a little bit before continuing, "this is like the gateway to there."

Chen opens her eyes wide and starts to get worried. "Wait… Does that mean you are going to kill me? Are you sending me to my…," she says, as gulps and then carries on, "... my resting place?"

Orin closes her mouth and uses her hand for support, trying desperately not to laugh.

Chen then tilts her head in confusion. "What's wrong?" She says, wondering why Orin is acting like this, "was I right? You really are…"

Orin then interrupts her, "I did not come here to kill you or send you to hell. And besides, I only like to collect corpses."

"Corpses? What are corpses?" A curious Chen asks Orin.

Orin begins to think to herself, "maybe I should tell her." She then stops thinking and begins to talk to Chen, explaining what a corpse is and what she does, "corpses are left over bodies of people. They are bodies of dead people. I collect them and send them to the Hell of Blazing Fires."

This causes Chen to become concerned, "I'm getting worried. Just who or what are you?" She says.

Orin begins to open the doors to the Palace and says to Chen, "You will find out soon enough."

Chen is still concerned, now going against Orin's own intentions, and says, "I... I… I… I'm not going with you," and now having second thoughts.

Orin tries to persuade Chen to come in and says, "come on, don't be silly. I brought you here so you could be happy."

"But there is so much that I do not know. I don't know who you are and this place is strange. So many things…," Chen says, as she begins to get depressed, "I wish I had the answers."

Just then, Satori Komeiji is seen going towards the entrance. "What is happening here?" She asks, "Orin, why are you not inside already?"

This gets Orin worked up. "NYA! Sorry, Master! But I did what you wanted and brought the cat," she says as she then winks at Satori.

"I see. Orin, get in," says Satori as she then looks at Chen, turning her attention to her, "and you there. What is your name?"

Chen answers, "I'm Chen…"

"Chen? What a peculiar name." Satori says. She continues, "anyway, I am Satori Komeiji and this…," she then begins to look at Orin and carries on, "... thing…," she then looks at Chen and continues, "... is Rin Kaenbyou."

"Rin… Kaenbyou?" A puzzled Chen asks.

Orin cringes at Satori and then says, "I told you, call me "Orin"!"

Satori covers one of her eyes, saying, "oh, did you? Oh, I do apologise" in a sarcastic manner. .

Orin is not amused by this. "That's not funny!" She says. "Aw, you're not mad at me from before, are you? You are so sweet," patronising Satori.

Chen looks at Orin. "Orin… Your name is Orin?" She asks.

Orin then answers, "yes. And how weird that our names are similar. What a coincidence. "

Chen then begins to talk to Satori, wanting to know why she was summoned to the Palace, "Satori. Satori, why do you want me? I thought I belonged to Ran, my master. I believe she was the one who made me. I thought my purpose was to stay with her."

"Aw, how quaint," Orin says as she starts to look cute.

Satori then shouts at Orin, "Orin, in! And take Chen with you."

All three enter the palace.

Chen looks around in astonishment. "This place is so big!" She says.

"Now that you are here, we need to do something first. Orin, come here." Satori says and then Orin comes closer to her. Satori then talks to Orin, "I want you to go and get your old clothes."

Orin questions Satori, "my old clothes?" She continues, "they never fit me to begin with! You only got them for me because you thought they would fit me." She the thinks to herself, " and because I am so cute."

Satori covers an eye with her hand and smirks, since she just mind-read Orin, "oh dear, did my mind-reading skills just slip passed you, Orin?" She then commands Orin to get those clothes of hers, "before you wet yourself in your own despair, get me those clothes. I am sick to death of the sight of her musty clothes."

Orin talks about how Satori is belittling her. "You speak about death so casually, especially since it was death that brought her here!" She says.

Satori starts to get a bit frustrated and then thinks to herself, "Orin, I really am losing my patience with you…"

Chen is seen getting a bit concerned from what she heard Orin say. "Death? What are you talking about? Orin is… Death?" She asks.

"No, Chen, she is a kasha, a cat demon that is basically another version of a nekomata. Or rather, she was one." Says Satori, who is explaining to Chen.

Chen then questions Satori, "neko… mata?"

"Yes. A nekomata is a cat that has its tail split at some point in its life," Satori explains.

Chen begins to wonder, "and I have two tails. So does that mean… does that mean that I am… a nekomata? She says.

Orin thinks and then clicks her fingers. "So that's what it was called. I will get and get my…, she says, as she then coughs, after mistakenly saying something, and then carries on, "... I mean, those clothes." She then goes into Satori's room.

Satori sighs and thinks to herself, "and here is me thinking she knew her own heritage."

Chen tries to get into grips with her own existence, "so, I'm a nekomata. I'm not a normal cat. I'm a youkai after all. Now I know what I am, I now know what Ran turned me into." She says.

"So this "Ran" made you? She is the reason for your very existence?" Satori asks.

Chen looks away and getting a bit embarrassed. "I think so," she says as she looks at Satori, keeping the expression, "all I know is that she is my Master. I am meant to serve her, right?" She begins to grip onto her arm and continues, "but happiness… Why does it feel so painful?"

"You have it wrong," says Satori, "happiness is not painful at all.

"Then what has given me so much pain!? I am so confused," says an emotional Chen.

It was then that Satori might have a solution to Chen's experience and says, "hmm, could it be that you are just scared? Or that you just feel empty inside?"

"I'm empty inside?" Chen questions.

Satori replies, "I believe that this is what this was about from before. You attacked Ran before because she attacked you. I am guessing you did not know where you belonged either. So you were just a scared kitten, then."

Chen begins to speak again, "but I…"

Just when Chen was talking, Satori interrupts her, "do you really know what emotions are? Have you been having trouble with them?"

"I… I…," Chen says, to which she then begins to look sad and starts to think to herself, "it was all just sudden. My existence was just… so sudden. I did not know what I was doing and where I was from. And then Ran came. I thought she wanted to kill me but it seemed like she just wanted to take me "home". All this time, I just did not know what to do. I thought I was just a monster and that Ran was going to end my life, end me. Why should I have to feel all this pain?"

Satori just so happened to be mind-reading Chen when she thought of that. She goes to Chen and puts her hand on her shoulder. "You are not alone, Chen," she says, "and if this "Ran" made you, she would not have wanted to kill you. The people in this world are not like that. She would not have created you for her own amusement. She is your master, you are her shikigami. You see, you DO have a purpose in life, you DO have somewhere that you belong, even if it is on mountains. She can help you."

Chen slowly starts to cry, confused as to what to do and says, "what should I do? I don't know what to do anymore."

Satori decides on what she believes Chen should do. "I think you should return to your master. If this is really how you feel, then I think you should return to her," she says.

Just then, Orin is seen coming into the room with the clothes that Satori ordered her to get and says, "and here are the…"

Satori begins to shout at Orin, due to Orin's barging in unawares, "and thank you for ruining the mood, sunshine!"

Orin becomes shocked by this, "NYA! What the hell, Satori!?"

Chen is then seen becoming ambivalent in crying and laughter and slowly stops crying whilst continuing to laugh.

Orin looks at Chen and smiles, "you seem awfully happy now," she says.

Chen continues to laugh and then says, "so this is what happiness feels like? It really doesn't hurt." She then starts to feel overjoyed. "It really doesn't!" She says,

"See? I told you. Now, Orin brought the clothes for you. Hurry up and get changed," says Satori, as she then passes the clothes to Chen.

Chen then says, "erm, OK," and then begins to get undressed in front of Orin and Satori.

Satori turns around quickly. "Not in here! Go in there and get changed," she says to Chen. Chen then takes the clothes and then goes into the room.

Orin then mocks Satori. "You really don't like the sight of naked bodies, do you?" She says.

Satori looks at Orin in a weird way and then begins to respond to her with a comeback, "oh, shut up. In fact, if you love it so much, why do you not join her!?"

Orin begins to sweat and laugh nervously and thinks to herself, "I suppose I was asking for that."

Chen, in the other room, is putting the clothes on. "These are hard to put on," she says as she then hurts her foot as she puts her shoes on and goes, "ah!". She continues, "OK, finally done," and then starts to walk out the room.

Chen is now seen with new clothing on; a red a white dress with a bow tie, white socks and red shoes.

Chen is seen doing a twirt. "Well? What do you think?" She asks.

Orin opens her eyes wide in astonishment and thinks, "could I have been that cute if I wore all that?"

"You look lovely," says Satori as she then looks at Orin, "and it looks like it might be giving our shinigami a heart attack. Not getting jealous, are we, Orin?"

Orin gets embarrassed. "N-n-no. Not at all." She closes her eyes and smiles, keeping, keeping the previous expression and continues, "let me see how the hell raven, Okuu, is doing." She then walks off.

"Oh dear, cats and their competitive nature. They always want to be the centre of attention," Satori says as she then pokes a little bit of fun at her, "she left her hannya mask behind."

Chen is thrilled by what Satori did for her. "Thank you, Satori!" She says, as she then leaps onto Satori, "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"OK. OK. Enough hugs, Chen," says Satori.

Just then, someone appears at the palace.

"Hello? Is my shikigami here?" Says Ran, who was the one who entered the palace.

Chen looks surprised by this. "Ra-Ran!? Why are you here?" She says.

"Why else? I came to take you with me," says Ran.

Satori begins to wonder, "so Chen, this is your master?" She then examines Ran and notices something and then thinks to herself, "something is not right."

This makes Chen think as she then talks to Ran again, "you came to take me with you. So you really do care… about me?"

Ran then explains that she was hers to begins with and she says, "you are my shikigami. You are my property and I am sorry that I did not give you that what you deserved. I treated you badly, like a master to a servant," saying her guilt.

"Ran… Master Ran…," says Chen.

"But I promise I will not be like that anymore. You will not be alone and I do not want you getting hurt anymore, especially not because of me." Ran explains.

This causes Chen to begin emotional and she begins to cry, "Ran… RAAANNNN!" She then starts to cry tremendously.

Satori thinks to herself, "something is not right here." She begins to remember part of the battle between Ran and Chen and continues to think, "I could have sworn Chen sliced one of Ran's tails right off. So why is it that she still has all nine of her tails?" She then talks to Ran, "say, Ran, how did your tail grow back? You were damaged earlier."

"Oh, that? A kitsune's tail grows back eventually," she explains.

Satori is not convinced as she is looks in a suspicious manner, "oh, really?" She then thinks, "hmm…"

Ran looking at Chen. "Chen, time to go home," she says.

Chen closes her eyes, smiles and nods and says, "OK!"

They both walk out of the palace.

"I need to get Orin here right now!" Says Satori, as she then goes to find Orin.

Meanwhile, at Myouren Temple.

Mamizou is waking up and groaning. "What happened?" She says as she starts to get up, "but when did I fall asleep? Everything went normally as I was going outside. Just how did I end up here? Maybe I need to see that Yashima again…." She starts to go outside.

Outside the premises of Myouren Temple.

Yashima, in his "Adult form," is seen sleeping on a branch and is starting to wake up. "Well, that was now…," he says as he goes to get his sake bottle and goes to drink out of it and then continues, "... Oh, it's empty."

Mamizou arrives and has this to say, "ah, there you are! What is going on?"

"Oh look, why isn't it the Teakettle?" Yashima says, taking the mick out of her, "go and bother someone else, like Nazrin. I am on guard and…," begins to yawn and then continues, "... rather sleepy."

"Listen, you, I am not a Bunbuku!" A slightly annoyed Mamizou says.

Yashima Hogo responds with, "oh yes, how silly of me to forget." He begins to smirk as he then mocks Mamizou again, "it was Mamizou Hutatsuiwa."

"Futatsuiwa. FU-tatsuiwa!" Mamizou explains.

"Whatever the case," Yashima says as he then jumps off the branch. "Can I use that sake bottle of yours? Mine is empty," asking for someone of Mamizou's.

Mamizou begins to wonder about Yashima. "Why do you want to get drunk so badly? You are a guardian, aren't you? Wouldn't that be indecent of you?" SHe says, questioning him.

Yashima talks back, "you can talk, with that pipe of yours. One who cannot control her own bad habits."

Mamizou opens her eyes wide in shock, "why, you little…"

Yashima clicks his fingers, which causes an image of himself to appear behind Mamizou. The image then scares Mamizou, which she then responds by hitting it out of reflex. The image then disappears.

Mamizou then says to the sniggering Yashima, "that's not funny! I can get a heart attack, you know."

Yashima begins to poke fun at Mamizou, "hey, at least it means I get a nice fluffy tail as my pillow. Maybe even a blanket. Yes, definitely a blanket."

Mamizou starts to really get annoyed. "I am not going to take any more of this from you!, She says and then continues, going to say the reason why she came, "besides, I came here to ask what happened to me before."

"It's called "old age"," the content Yashima (AF) says.

"Old age?" Mamizou says as she then begins to shout "OLD AGE!?"

Yashima then announces that he only wanted to have fun and meant nothing by it by saying, "don't get your knickers in a twist. I was just messing with you." He carries on, "you want to know why you were sleeping, right? It's one of my abilities," explaining what Mamizou wanted to know.

Mamizou squints. "What? Another ability?" She says.

Yashima begins to explain, "yes. I can place illusionary traps in areas that, when someone touches them, they fall under the illusion and go into a deep sleep. They are not aware that they are asleep and will still think that what is happening is really happening. "

"Really?" Mamizou says.

Yashima moves his kasa a bit, saying, "so please…," jumps onto a branch and carries on, "... mind your step."

This causes Mamizou to wonder. She did not want to hit another one of his traps. "B-b-but… How do I know where these traps are? You could have several for all I know, hun!" She says.

"I've been asleep for quite some time and my illusions don't work when I am asleep. Any traps that I set up have been dispelled," Yashima says, hinting that Mamizou does not need to worry.

Mamizou sighs in relief.

"But that doesn't mean that I am not going to set more up right now," Yashima (AF) says, as he then gets ready to place the traps and begins to smirk. "Are you ready for this?" He says.

Mamizou gets scared and quickly runs into the premise of Myouren Temple.

Yashima opens his eyes wide and says, "wow, old people today have no sense of humour…"

End of chapter

Next chapter: Subterranean Disturbance


	5. Subterranean Disturbance

At the Palace of the Earth Spirits, near the Hell of Blazing Fires.

Orin is seen in the area that Utsuho supposedly is. "Okuu, you there?" She wonders.

Utsuho emerges and then responds to Orin, followed by a question, "hello there, Orin. Why are you here?"

Orin just closes an eye and then sticks her tongue, "what, can't I see a friend once in awhile?" she says, questioning Utsuho, "and besides, I come here too, you know. We both have jobs here."

Utsuho then closes her eyes and responds back, "yes, you're right. We are here do regulate the flames of this place." She then begins to wonder why Orin came to her to begin with. "Did you bring the fuel? Did you bring corpses? I do not see a cart…," she says.

Orin then laughs nervously." I left it upstairs. I came here all so suddenly. But at least I have this hell raven handy," she explains, licking her lips her lips in the process.

Utsuho begins to open her eyes and then shouts, "don't you even think about it, Orin!" She carries on, "I thought I was your friend as well…"

"Well, you're no Yatagarasu. I am only pulling your leg, Okuu," she says to Utsuho, admitting that she was only joking and then sticks her tongue out.

Orin's words cause Utsuho to wonder. "Yataga… What did you say?" She asks.

Orin is startled by this and starts to panic. "N-n-nothing! Forget I even get…," she says, as she mixes her ups word due to the panic, "... I mean, forget I even said that!"

Utsuho begins to wonder again, "Right… So did Satori send you down out of her own volition? You been a naughty puss?"

Orin is seen acting cute, "Now, that's not nice." She then starts to act sad and talks again, "what did I ever do to deserve this?"

Utsuho turns away slightly whilst still looking in Orin's direction and thinks, " "honestly, Orin, enough of the drama…"

Orin begins to laugh impishly. "Just being with you will always be of good cheer in my eyes," she says, "what a nice way to get my spirits up!" Acting so cheerful.

Utsuho begins to hear footsteps. "Shh… Orin, can you hear what sounds like running?" She asks.

Orin stares at Utsuho and says to her, "are you seriously asking me if I can hear footsteps?"

This causes Utsuho to start rolling her eyes and say, "well…"

After running into the area, "Satori begins to panic slightly, "Orin, I need you quickly!"

"What do you want now, Satori?" Says Orin.

Satori explains, "it is Chen! Ran came and took Chen away with her."

Orin then wonders about what Satori said, why she cares about it, and she questions her, "why is that such a bad thing? I thought Ran was her master. She is with her master now, so why make such a fuss about it? I know you wanted another pet but if you wanted her to be with her Master, why bother about it?"

Utsuho becomes puzzled. "Who is Chen? A friend of yours?" She asks.

"Not now, Utsuho," Satori says. She then explains herself to Orin and her thoughts, "And yes, I did want another pet but after listening to her story, I sided against the idea. And even though I said Ran took her away, I highly doubt that was actually Ran!"

"What? Who else could it have been, then?" Orin says, as she begins to wonder.

Satori sways her head and responds, "I do not know. Whoever it was has the ability to shapeshift."

Orin starts to get intrigued and says, "shapeshift? So what do you want me to do?"

"Follow whoever that person was!" Satori commands, "when you do find that person, you can do whatever you want."

This gets Orin excited as she then says, "really? Even killing?"

Satori starts to cover an eye and sighs. "If it comes to that, then yes, EVEN killing," she says.

"Oh, goodie!" An overjoyed Orin says, "I will love you for this after! I really will!"

They both leave the area.

Utsuho sighs. "… No one ever tells me anything." She then says.

Meanwhile, near the Yakumo house, Chen and Ran are close to arriving at the house.

"We are close now, Chen. But did you really have to jump on my back?" Ran Yakumo, as she is curious about Chen's actions.

Chen looks at Ran in a weird way and says, "I think I got a bit carried away there." She then gets off of Ran's back/

Ran begins to think to herself, "I did not realise that this shikigami was like this. But at least it means she won't suspect a thing."

"Master Ran, did you really mean what you said before? Was I…," Chen says, as she then looks the other way, "... Well, er… I was horrible, wasn't I?"

"Chen, that's all in the past, now." Ran explains.

But a concerned Chen has this to say, "but I caused you so much pain. But you still want to be with me after all I did? Is it because I am nothing more than your Shikigami?" She asks as she then stops walking.

Ran stops, looks at Chen and puts her hand on her shoulder, Chen looking at her at the time. "Listen, Chen, I meant every bit of it. I should not treat you like a servant. You are more than just that and my actions towards you were uncalled for. I felt like you were being disobedient." She explains, implying that what she did was uncalled for.

"Erm…," Chen says as she then tilts her head, "... Ran?"

"I will try to make it right for you, for both of us. I will not treat you like you do not belong here and I will protect you." Ran says to Chen.

Chen starts to feel very emotional by this and so she says, "I promise I'll to be good from now on! I will not cause anymore trouble for you or Yukari!"

They both carry on walking and then arrive at the premises of the Yakumo house.

"Well, this is the place," Ran then says.

Chen then asks, "it is? But I thought you lived here," curiously.

Ran closes her eyes and starts to sweat a bit. "Well, yes. That is what I was meant to say, "we are here"," she says as she then begins to think, "what a way to nearly give the game away."

"I just have one question, Ran. How did you know where I was?" Chen asks and then she begins to touch her digit fingers continuously with one another and look downwards. She continues, "I mean, I left because someone said that she can make me happy. I wanted…," she turns her head slightly to one side and stops touching her digits and continues, "... I just thought that I could make you happy. I was beginning to feel like I knew my purpose in life. I thought I was just your servant and I thought that by staying here and obeying you I could make you happy. That is what I wanted. But… But… "

"Chen, you are not under a ball and chain. You weren't before and I realise that now. You have a mind of your own and I cannot let you be my own personal pet." Ran says, saying to Chen that she has nothing to fear.

Chen begins to look like she is about to cry. "I'm just happy to be here again. I promise I will not leave you again!" She says.

"Oh, Chen… Cheer up," says Ran as she then goes to answer Chen's question, "to answer your question, it was only a hunch. I just had a guess as to where you were."

"I'm going inside now. Bye, Master!" Chen says as she then begins to hop to the house and then enters it.

Ran sighs and then thinks to herself, "for my sake, I hope the real Ran does not appear. But I think I will stay here for a little bit longer. All I have to do is stay here and study both the shikigami and Ran and then I can finally do what I came here to do." She then begins to move into the house.

Yukari is seen arriving at the area. "Hello, Ran. How are you today?" She asks.

Ran stops moving and responds, "I am fine. What are you doing here, Yukari?"

"I came to check up on Chen. I noticed her missing before but decided not to tell her master. I did not want to cause a panic. But I see you found her anyway," Yukari explains.

"Well, not to worry. She is safe and sound now," says Ran, hinting that there is nothing to worry about.

"She will be when you are gone," Yukari says, charging at Ran and tries to hit her with a bullet, but Ran quickly realises and quickly dodges.

Ran questions Yukari in a shocked sense, "Yukari, what are you doing!?"

"Tell me, Ran, Chen cut off one of your tails earlier in her fight. A kitsune's tail never grows back, it will only fall off. So how is it that you still have all nine tails intacted?" An unconvinced Yukari tells Ran.

Ran tries to explain herself, "well, it's because… It's because…"

"Would it be because you are not really her?" Yukari explains, "I overheard you talking to Chen before. You sounded a bit too guilty to be Ran. Ran might have been moved by my words, but she would never act like a whimpering dog. You are just fortunate that the real Ran is not here."

Suddenly a murder of crows appear and start to surround and attack Ran Yakumo. Yukari then opens a gap behind Ran.

"For the sake of Ran, I cannot allow you to stay here." Yukari is not certain that she does not want her around. She continues, "there is only one shapeshifter that I know and that is Mamizou. What you want with Chen is beyond me, but I will be willing to find out what makes you so curious."

"Mamizou? No, I am not Mamizou," Ran (?) says to Yukari.

"You are not?" Says Yukari as she becomes intrigued, "then, who are you?"

Ran (?) begins to blow the crows away with her energy and begins to reveal herself, "I am Nue Houjuu. I am the one who summoned Mamizou to this place. As for what I want with Chen, I'm not going to tell you that. Not just yet."

Yukari is surprised by this, "Nue Houjuu? Wait…," she says as she begins to remember something and then carries on, "... I have heard that name before. So Mamizou went through my barrier because of you? Just what are you?"

Nu-Ran then has this to say, "I'm just someone who is like you; mysterious." She begins to leave and continues, "and now, I take my leave. I need to tell Mamizou what happened, even though I have failed."

Yukari then begins to shout at Nu-Ran, "stop right there!" She goes to close her gap, but before she could close it, Nue went through it. "I have to warn Ran. I have to warn her!" She says.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Gensokyo.

Orin sighs. "I can't find her anywhere. But then, how do I know what she looks like?" I've never seen her before!" She says, unsure on what she looks like because of a lack of knowledge. She then begins to blame Satori, "good job, Satori. Why can't she be clear with me?"

Just then, Orin senses something. A gap begins to open near her and then someone begins to emerge from it. Orin then hides behind the bushes.

"That could've gone swimmingly if that Yukari did not intervene. But then, I wouldn't have been able to stay there for long. The real Ran would have appeared sooner or later," Nu-Ran as she then looks around to find out where she is, "this is odd. I was hoping to be somewhere else, not here. That Yukari… She wanted to abandon me far away from her." She begins to walk and carries on talking, "but at least I can make a move on the Myouren Temple."

Orin gets curious by this. "What is she talking about? And who is she? Is that Ran?" She questions, uncertain on who that person is. "How weird. She has red ears. Were a kitsune's ears always that colour? Wait… Maybe this is the imposter that Satori was talking about." She then gets an idea and puts on a devilish smile.

Nu-Ran begins to think to herself, "I think it is about time I undo this disguise. There's no need for it now and I don't want to cause a disturbance."

Just before Nue could change back to her normal self, fireballs get fired at her and start to engulf her.

Nu-Ran starts to scream, "AAAAAHHHHHHH! WHAT IS THIS!"

Orin then licks her lips and has this to say, "have a taste of my Hitodama. It will be your last meal before I send you to the Hell of Blazing Fires for all eternity."

"NOOOO! I CAN'T LET IT END HERE!" Yells Nu-Ran.

Orin is then seen appearing from the bushes. "You sure have seen better days, haven't you, whoever you are?" She says.

Nu-Ran is in pain from this. "You…! A simple kasha did this to me!?" She asks.

"Who else? I just love collecting corpses. And even though I do not like to kill, I will make an exception this time," Orin explains.

Nu-Ran then says, "I will get you for this. I will…," but just before she could talk any further, her breathing and heart both stop and she slowly falls to the ground, the flames suddenly dissipate due to Orin thinking that she finally died..

"Well, that was a mess. I wonder if she really died?" Says Orin as she then shrugs, "well, my job is half done and I did what Satori wanted me to do." She begins to walk away and continues, "I just need to get my cart and come back."

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house.

Yukari is seen sitting outside, remembering what Nue said, "from Nue Houjuu: As for what I want with Chen, I'm not going to tell you that. Not just yet.", " And now, I take my leave. I need to tell Mamizou, even though I have failed. "" She then says, "just what is she up to?"

Ran then enters the premise. "Oh, hello, Yukari," she says.

"Ran! Thank goodness you are here," a relieved Yukari says.

Ran gets puzzled, "what? Why are you so glad that I came back?" She says. She continues, "I was only gone for a few minutes. I am going to check up on Chen."

"Oh, Chen, right. She should still be sleeping, I think," Yukari says, trying to think of an excuse.

Ran gets suspicious, "you think? Just what are you hiding? Are you keeping a secret from me?" She questions.

"Nothing, Ran," says Yukari as she then begins to calm down before continuing, "nothing at all. I was just happy that you came back. I was feeling a little lonely here.

"You? Lonely? You hardly ever leave the house," responds Ran after Yukari mentioned being lonely. "You should be used to loneliness by now. And what about Chen? You have her to occupy you. Anyway, I am going inside," she says she then goes inside after saying this.

"… I really cannot bring myself to tell her," Yukari thinks after restraining herself from telling Ran.

Inside the building.

Chen gets alerted by Ran's presence, "Master Ran!"

"Oh, hello… Chen?" Ran says as she then gets surprised, "what happened to you? New clothes? But how?"

"Do you like it?" Questions Chen as she then gets happy, "someone gave me the clothes because my old ones were dirty and messy."

"Suits you. They match your eyes quite nicely," Ran says, who approves of Chen's look, but she then questions her and thinks about it, "and who gave them to you? Was it Yukari? That was nice of her."

"It was…," says Chen as she then tries to remember, "... someone with three eyes."

Ran begins to wonder, "someone with three eyes?" She says as she then begins to think, "I have never seen such a person. Did you go out without my knowing?"

Chen then begins to feel a little bit guilty. "Well…," she says as she then begins to realise something, "but wait, you were with me. Did you forget?"

Ran gets puzzled by this, "what? I was never with you."

"But you were. I am sure you were," Chen explains, saying that she was positive that was Ran that she was with.

Ran, who is trying to think of a possibility, says, "maybe… Maybe... I am trying to think, who else could it have been?"

Chen gets confused. "Now I'm getting confused," she says.

"Anyway, I told you to stay in!" Ran says to Chen in an annoyed sense, "especially since you needed to recuperate. But at least you ate what I gave you."

"But Master, I feel much better now," says Chen as she starts to look sad, "why can't I go out?"

"I just wanted you to be safe and recuperate. I cannot bare to see you injured again." Ran explains, saying that she just wanted Chen to stay in the building to keep her safe.

"But why?" Questions Chen.

Ran begins to explain, "it's because…," she closes her eyes and continues, "... I felt a little bit guilty about what I did." She then opens her eyes and continues, "and with what Yukari told me earlier, we are sort of… linked to one another."

Chen gets puzzled at the strange words that Ran speaks of, "linked? What do you mean, "linked"?"

"It means that when you take damage, I also take damage. I believe she called it "Kyōzon". It is the link between you and I and it stays that way as long as we coexist," explains Ran.

Chen then begins to get interested by this and says, "oh. So I am a part of you?"

Ran then continues with her explanations, "that is what Yukari told me. The blood that I injected into you was the trigger. I am her shikigami, so I suppose it is not that surprising that she has this knowledge."

"Help me understand, Master Ran. I need to know more," an eager Chen says.

"Maybe later. I need to do something now," Ran says, implying that she does not have time to explain it all to Chen and then leaves the building.

At the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Satori sees Orin come in, "Ah, you are back. Did you do it?" She asks.

Orin responds, "Yes, yes, I did it." She then gets overjoyed, which is odd because she went against her own principles, "and I normally wouldn't since I don't like to kill! But exceptions are things."

Satori covers an eye with her hand. "So you ended up killing her, after all…," she says, realising that Orin did what she thought she would do.

Orin then goes to get her cart.

"Now I need to put up the corpse. Got to keep myself busy," says Orin as she winks at Satori and then begins to leave the palace.

Satori sighs. "You are such a nuisance, Orin," she says.

Back at the Yakumo house.

"What should I do?" A wondering Chen says as she starts to look around. "Is there anything that I can eat?" She says to herself as she then finds and opens the fridge. She then gets curious, "ooh, what's this? Ramen? I wonder what that tastes like?" She then takes something out of the fridge and closes it, then goes to a table and starts to eat it and then thinks to herself, "hmm, this doesn't taste nice. I think I will put it back." After being disgusted with what she just had she starts to look happy and thinks again, "I think I will get some food from the forest!"

Chen then starts to leave the house.

Chen says to Yukari, "hello, Yukari. I'm going out for a bit. I'm going to collect some things. She then runs out of the premise.

Yukari closes and eye and smiles. "Well, as long as you are careful. We do not want Ran to get angry again," she explains, not wanting Chen to anger Ran. "That reminds me, where is Ran?" She wonders.

Somewhere in a forest.

Chen is seen walking along. "I need to find something nice so that Ran can cook something for me," she says as she then finds some flowers and mushrooms, "mushrooms and camellia? Camellia… That was the plant that makes tea, I think. I think I will take those." She puts on a smile, puts them up and then walks on.

Just as Chen goes onto the path and walks onward, she notices something.

Chen becomes shocked at what she has just seen, "what? No… No…! It can't be."

End of chapter

Next chapter: A New Way to Suffer


	6. A New Way to Suffer

At the Yakumo house, Yukari Yakumo is seen on a chair with her umbrella in the ground and covering her. "This is a lovely day. Just a clear sunny day," she says as she then sees Ran enter the premise, "and where have you been?"

Ran replies, "I was just out. I had to do something quickly."

Yukari then looks at Ran with an eye closed and says to her, "so you did something on your own without my saying so? Very bold." Hinting at something that she should not have done.

Ran is seemingly annoyed as she begins to shout, "I do have a life too, Yukari!"

"Just joking," Yukari implies, "I don't get out much myself and I feel like I really should. At least we do not have Cirno or Letty to ruin this day for me."

Ran begins to question Yukari about what she just said, "Cirno and Letty? The ones guarding the area?"

Yukari responds, "Who else would I mean?" Hinting that she did not mean anyone else.

Ran begins to laugh nervously, thinking that she said a silly question. "Anyway, I came back to see Chen," she says. She then asks Yukari, "she is here, is she not?"

"Well…," says Yukari as she is finding it hard to find the right words to say.

Ran repeats herself, "she is here, is she not?"

Yukari finally thinks of words to say and begins to talk to Ran, "she went out not long ago. I think she said she was going to collect some things."

Ran is then seen looking a bit shocked and she questions her, "she went out? And you did not stop her? What if she gets hurt again!? You told me to protect her."

"Calm down, Ran," she says, trying to keep her in a steady mood. "I'm sure that she will not intentionally get herself into trouble. And besides, she seems a lot happier now. She does not seem as indecisive and confused as before. I owe it all to you." She says, trying to reassure her.

Ran gets confused by this. "You owe it all to me? What are you talking about?" She says as she then looks away from Yukari, "I never… did… anything."

Yukari then looks at Ran with a smile. "You did enough and that is all you need to know," she says.

Ran becomes suspicious by this. "I really do feel like you are hiding something from me," she says.

Yukari begins to laugh and then thinks to herself, "I wish I could tell you that much…"

Meanwhile, in a forest somewhere, Chen has noticed something.

Chen drops the things that she collected, horrified by what she say. "How did this happen? Ran… Master Ran… I don't understand," she says as she then goes to check the body and says, "I cannot hear anything." She puts her hand against "Ran's" chest and then her eyes widen. "She's not breathing!" She says in a shocked sense, "is this "death"? Is my master dead?" She then starts to get worked up.

Somewhere close by.

Orin hums "Be of Good Cheer" as she walks towards Nue's corpse. "I cannot wait to get this corpse over to Hell. Satori will be so pleased!" She says. As she carries on walking along the path, she notices Chen and then stops and thinks to herself, "damn…"

Chen is seen being sick. "This isn't right. This isn't right." She says, still in shock. She continues, "this pain in my head. This… this-this-this-this pain in my body," she says as she then becomes sick again. She then begins to plead, " want you back, Ran!" She says as she then turns around and sees Orin, but in an angry sense and says, "you…"

"I was not expecting you to be here. This is awkward." Orin says, as she was hoping Chen was not going to be in the area since she did not want to see her "master" dead.

"You did this, didn't you!?" Chen says, angrily.

Orin then confesses to Chen and explains why she did it, "Yes, I did. I was told to follow her and I ended up killing her. I came to collect her corpse so I could send it to the Hell of Blazing Fires. It is my job, you know. If she had stayed here, you would have…"

"You… You… You…," she says as she then becomes even angrier as her earring begins to slowly turn from yellow to blue and then yellow from blue continually, "YOU KILLED HER!" Chen then lunges right at Orin. Orin quickly grabs her and throws her away.

"Chen, you need to listen to me. You don't understand who that was," says Orin.

Chen, now emotionally unstable, has this to say to Orin, "she was my master. She was my creator. She was my family." Blood then starts to fall down her arms and onto her hands as she then continues, "she was MY EVERYTHING!"

Chen lunges at Orin again. Orin dodges, but then Chen produces two bullets, on in each hand, and tries to hit Orin with them but Orin quickly fires a bullet at her, sending her flying and causing her to crash onto the ground. Chen then recovers.

Blood starts to come out of Chen's eyes and run down her face as she then goes into her "Danger Mode". "You will die for this, Orin, and I am going to enjoy every bit of it," she says, sadistically.

Orin thinks to herself, "was she always like this? She seems…"

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house.

Ran is seen beginning to hold her chest as she could feel pain in her chest.

Yukari notices Ran holding her chest. Wondering what is wrong, she asks her, "Ran, are you OK?"

"Just a bit of heartburn, I think," Ran assumes. She then begins to put both of her hands on her head and starts screaming.

"Ran? Ran! No, this is not good," Yukari says in concern.

Ran, now in pain, begins to scream at Yukari, "Yukari! What is happening to me!?"

"Something must have happened to Chen. I need to do something about Ran, though," Yukari thinks.

Back in the forest.

Chen moves into the sky and starts firing bullets at Orin. Orin reacts by using her Shiranui Wall to block her attacks. Chen then produces blue and red bullets that form a circle and then goes straight to Orin and as well using Oni Sign "Konjin of the Demon's Gate", which end up extinguishing her wall.

"You can't hide from me using that shield of yours, Orin. YOU CAN'T!" Chen says.

Orin looks surprised by what just happened. "She… She destroyed my shield!" She says, as the one thing that she thought would not happen did happen.

Chen then lengthens her "claws" and then lunging herself at Orin. Orin just about dodges.

"Chen, you don't understand. That was not your master that I killed. That was an imposter," says Orin, who is trying to explain to Chen the situation.

Chen denies this. "Stop lying! THAT WAS MY FAMILY THAT YOU KILLED AND I CAN'T FORGIVE YOU!" She says as one eye starts to flicker yellow and red until it then becomes yellow, the earring turns into a bright blue colour and begins to crack a little bit. Blood starts to come out from her mouth onto her chin and then drip from her chin, now in her "Semi-Bake Mode". The force of her energy also pushes Orin well away from her.

Orin starts to get up after being thrown away and begins to look both concerned and shocked. "This is bad. I cannot convince her. I had no idea that she was so attached. And what is this power?" She says.

Chen's voice begins to deepen. "You will be sorry. I will make sure of that. You will be sorry… ," she says as she begins to strike Orin and continues, "... just before you die!" Talking whilst attacking Orin and as Orin, due to her reflexes, dodges her attacks. "You do not know how it feels, do you? She was the one person who wanted to care for me, who wanted to protect me," she explains to Orin as she then grabs Orin's face. "And you…," she then begins to push her and carries on, but shouts, "... TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME!"

Orin gets up after hitting the ground, her arm starts to ache. "She is beyond the point of reasoning. I think I will have to strike back, whether I want to or not," she says, thinking there is nothing she can do to persuade her.

"Say your prayers, kasha!" Chen says. Just before she attacks with her bullets, her head starts to ache. She dispels the bullets and then puts both of her hands on her head and screams in pain, "AAAHHHH! MASTER RAN! WHY AM IN SO MUCH PAIN!?"

"Now's my chance," says Orin. She then moves her hands in front of her and begins to produce Hitodama and Kechibi that form a ball around Chen. Orin then moves her hands together and both the Hitodama and Kechibi move towards Chen, hitting her.

"I hope that stopped her for now. I just need to her calm down. Maybe she will then listen to reason," Orin says, hoping that she can put some sense into Chen. But she considers another idea and says, "or maybe I can just get the corpse and run away."

At the Yakumo House.

"Yukari! Yukari! Help me!" Ran screams.

"Ran, try using your Hoshi-no-Tama. That should help ease the pain," she says to Ran, wanting to help reduce Ran's suffering. But as Ran goes to use her Hoshi-no-Tama, Yukari notices blood coming out of her mouth and she then thinks to herself, "what is this? Blood? Oh, no! This is not good at all." "I will see if I can find anything to help," she says to Ran and then rushes into the house.

"H-hurry!" Ran says whilst in pain.

Back in the forest.

Just as Orin is going to her wheelbarrow, Chen emerges from the flames and starts firing bullets as she moves downward. Orin quickly moves away and fires bullets herself. Just as Chen is dodging all of them, Orin goes to Chen, ascending to the sky, and punches her, which sends her falling downward a bit. Chen then goes to Orin, grabs her twin braids and starts swinging her around and around. Orin then fires a bullet at her face, which causes her to cringe and then throw Orin to the ground.

Chen begins to growl. "You will regret this. And after I'm done with you, I am going after your master," she says, threatening Orin.

Orin is getting up from the ground at this point and she then widening her eyes due to what Chen just said. "You… wouldn't… dare! I can't accept hearing that from you!" she shouts as she then begins to ascend to the sky.

"You were told to follow her. It must have been your master. Your master is just as guilty as you are!" Chen says.

Orin goes to explain herself, "Satori was not the one to tell me to kill her. She just told me to follow the imposter and then I could whatever I wanted. I ended up killing her, not like I wanted to. Satori must have wanted you safe, don't you see that? And by killing her I thought I was doing something even better." What Orin says is meant for Chen's own good as Satori seemed to not want anything bad to happen since she wanted her to be with her own Master and not the imposter.

Chen starts to hold her head as she is aching in pain. Thoughts then enter her mind.

"That was not Ran that was with you at that time, that was someone pretending to be her," Orin tries to explain, "and…," she then begins to react to her arm that is aching and carries on, "... And she did not want to leave you with that person."

Chen questions Orin, "then why didn't she say anything? Why was I brought home? Why did she bring me home!?

Orin then has to try and explain to Chen why this was. But since she went away and did not stay to see what happened, all she can do is guess. She says this to Chen, "Satori did not say anything because she probably did not want to bring up suspicion. And I don't know why she took you to your house. Probably so you would not suspect a thing and that you would think that she really was Ran. But it seems like I need to stop you here." Orin's hands begin to catch fire as she begins to move her hands towards Chen.

"So now you want to kill me? Killing my master was not enough for a cold-hearted killer!?" says Chen.

Orin's voice begins to echo as she says, "Flames of the Incandescent Hou-ou!" Flames begin to form around her body and more gets produced onto her hands Then flames from around her body get transferred to her hands and the flames on her hands grow larger. She then shoots it towards Chen. As she does that, the fire fill up more space and begin to form a bird-like figure and it then hits and engulfs Chen.

Chen screams in a monstrous tone, "AHHHHH!"

Back at the Yakumo house where Ran is now inside of the building after Yukari bringing her inside and leaves her on the floor as opposed to her bed, Ran is currently sleeping.

Yukari, after tending to Ran, begins to talk to herself, "I hope that helps. This should ease her suffering. But I need to do something. I need to do something about the connection of both her and Chen so that it is not this strong." She begin to get worried and continues, "I need to find Chen. Something has happened to her and with the state that Ran is in…" She then begins to bite her thumb and begins to say more, as she then begins to realise that she must act before it is too late, "no, this is not good at all. I need to find her before she kills herself!"

Back in the forest.

Orin starts to pant. "Did I kill her?" She asked and then begins to cringe in pain, "just what is she? Is this normal?" She Begins to look at her own hands and notices them shaking, which causes her to become shocked. This causes her to question herself, "what? This can't be… Am I… frightened?" She grips her hands and closes her eyes forcefully and continues, trying to reassure herself, "no, I'm a kasha. I'm death incarnate. This should not be happening."

Just then, a bullet emerges from out of the flames. Orin manages to evade it.

Orin is seen looking shocked as she then says this, "what? But how?"

The flames clear and Chen is seen with a few burn marks and not severely injured.

"How is this possible? Chen, just what are you!?" Orin questions. She continues, "you are just some nekomata, That is what Satori said. But you are not a nekomata at all, you are just a monster!"

"Those flames hurt me. They hurt me!" Chen (Semi-Bake Mode) yells. She then takes a bloodied hand out and moves it towards Orin, yellow bullets start appearing in a line in front and above her and she begins to say something to Orin whilst growling, "DIE! Star Sign "Jumping Crossing Scale"!"

She releases the bullets, sending them towards Orin. Orin begins to dodge of them and manages to successfully, even though she nearly gets hit. Chen begins to move around, using Star Sign "Jumping Crossing Scale" again, firing the bullets as she moves along. Orin tries to use her own bullets but gets hit by several of Chen's. Just before she falls downward, Chen comes up to her and grabs her face and then throws her to the ground. Four Kechibi appear in front of Orin and head towards Chen. Chen then extinguishes them.

"There is no point," says Orin, "I can't do anything like this." She begins to get up but then falls down again and continues talking, "I'm too injured to carry this on. At this rate, I really will die. I need to retreat." Orin then goes to escape. She seemingly disappears as she turns into her cat form, hidden within her clothes due to them not fitting her anyway. She then wriggles her way out of the clothes and tries to run away, using just three paws instead of four.

Chen looks at Orin. "You are not leaving me here!" She says.

A bullet begins to appear but before she can fire it, she dispels it and begins to put a hand on her face. She becomes bothered by a sensation in her head, which is just her being hurt. She lets out a monstrous scream before her eye starts to turn from yellow to red again and her earring goes back to being yellow. Orin has managed to escape death. Chen then descends to the ground.

Chen's voice goes back to normal after she returns to normal. "Ah, my head! What happened?" she says, unsure as to what happened. She looks around and notices something and says, "Orin… Where's Orin? What did I do?" She begins to hear something drip onto the grass. "What was that?" She wonders, beginning to look at her hand in shock, "wh-what is this red stuff!? B-b-blood? But why am I bleeding? Is this Ran's blood? RAN'S BLOOD!?" She begins to shorten her "claws" and then puts her hands on her face in panic and then feels something strange on her face and says this, "It's on my face as well! Does this mean that I killed her? I killed my master?" She then falls to the ground and begins to scream, "NOOOOOO!" She begins to cry, "so it wasn't Orin after all. I killed her." She then screams, "I KILLED HER!"

Just then, Yukari appears.

Yukari hits Chen's neck so she can cause Chen to become unconscious and then thinks to herself, "sorry, Chen. Sorry you had to act like this. You did not deserve this at all. But you are safe with me now. Let's take you back home and get you cleaned up. Trauma such as this is too much for you to bare and if you are in pain, Ran too, will be in pain."

Yukari then begins to carry Chen and then goes into a gap, which she then closes.

At Myouren Temple, at Mamizou's residence.

Mamizou is seen waking up. "Oh, I think I dozed off, there. Oh well, at least I had a nice slee…," she says as she then notices something and carries on, "... eep! What are you doing here?" She notices a sleeping Yashima, in his "Child form," on her tail and then begins to think to herself, " maybe if I just move my tail instead of trying to bother him." She starts to move it but realises that she cannot and ends up struggling. "He is heavier than I thought. And I was expecting this to just be another one of his illusions," she thought.

Yashima turns over a bit and then grabs onto Mamizou's tail and beginning to talk in his sleep, "no, don't leave me, Mum. I will be a good boy."

Mamizou laughs nervously and then thinks to herself, "... Not on your life." She continues to move her tail about, trying to set it free from Yashima's grasp. "It still will not budge. I might have to use my hands, after all." She says. Just as she goes to put her hand on his hands to try and release them, she hears Yashima yawning.

Yashima yawns and then stretchies as he is waking up and then looks at Mamizou." Hello there, Teakettle," he says, greeting Mamizou.

Mamizou then gets a little bit angry. "What are you doing in my room, Yashima!?" She comments, "don't you have your own place to sleep? I thought you said you liked to sleep outside the premises."

Yashima Begins to smile and says "did I? So I did. But I wanted somewhere comfy to sleep on."

This causes Mamizou to think. "You… wanted something comfy to sleep on? Are you mocking me?" She replied.

Yashima decides to take the mick out of Mamizou, "now, you can't say that when you have a nice pillow for a tail, now, can you? I went on it for a while and ended up dozing off. I've never had such a good sleep." He then begins to giggle.

Mamizou begins to shout, "get off of me now!"

"I'm off!" Yashima says as he begins to get off of Mamizou and then goes off of the bed. "You know, I like you" he admits as he then closes his eyes and smiles.

Mamizou gives Yashima a weird look and then questions him, don't you have to be somewhere now?"

"Somewhere?" Yashima wonders as he tilts his head, "as in the entrance?"

"Yes, the entrance! You're our guardian, aren't you?" Says Mamizou.

Yashima then says, "and Nazrin will be mad if she sees me here. But It's fine because I can do my job and mess around at the same time. Yes, the traps that I setup are doing my job for me, "hinting that not being at the entrance has its ups and downs.

This created a dim view for Mamizou. "You really do sound lazy when you say such things, hun," she says.

"I just wanted to spend a bit of time with you!" Says Yashima in a happy tone, implying that he wanted more time with Mamizou.

Mamizou puts on a serious look. "Oh? And does that include using me like your own personal bed and trying to injure me?" She says, implying that Yashima only seemed to be a nuisance.

Yashima starts to think. "Erm… That's a good question," he says.

Mamizou gets surprised by this. "You mean, you don't know!?" She says.

Yashima then says, "I just thought about staying here with you a bit and I ended up sleeping. But I did want somewhere comfy to sleep."

Mamizou just stays silent.

"But I did help myself to some of your sake while I was here," Yashima (CF) says as he then smiles.

"You really are unbelievable," Mamizou says in a tiring tone. "Well, I am going back to sleep," she says as she is still a bit tired.

Yashima becomes a little bit sad after hearing that. "Aww, that's not fun. Because now you don't have to mind your step." She says, implying that there is no fun in Mamizou going to bed.

Mamizou begins to look surprised to to a certain thing that Yashima said. "Mind my step? You didn't…," she says as she realised what Yashima just did.

Yashima closes his eyes and starts giggling. "I might have. Well, I'm going now. Sweet dreams!" He says as she then begins to leave the area)

Just then, someone outside the building says this to Yashima, "Yashima, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be on duty!"

Yashima begins to change personality and turns into his adult form. "I just thought about going into the temple again. I do not come here that often," he says, He then questions the person, "And besides, aren't I allowed to have fun every now and then, Nazrin?"

The person, who is shown to be Nazrin, has this to say, "having fun, you say? Going into the temple, you say? Then what do you call this? I see this as going into another area and slacking off! Where's your pride?"

Yashima then explains himself, "I still have my pride and I do take my job seriously, but I also get bored at times. Besides, it is not like I am not still doing my job, anyway. And I am feeling a bit hungry as well."

"I will get some food for you now, then!" Nazrin shouts. She continues, "go back to your post and wait for me."

Mamizou is still inside her residence and sighing. "I really do hate that tanuki…," she says.

Meanwhile, back in the forest.

Nue starts to get up and transforms herself back into her original form. "That kasha… What did I do to deserve this from her? I bet she was sent by that three-eyed lunatic." She says as she begins to start aching, "I am hurt all over thanks to that feline." She begins to walk and carries on talking, "I will deal with her later. Right now, I have to go back to Myouren Temple." She then smirks and continues, "oh, won't she be pleased to see me."

End of chapter

Next chapter: Undefined Fantastic Reminiscence!


	7. Undefined Fantastic Reminiscence!

At Myouren Temple, at Mamizou's residence, Mamizou is asleep and is about to wake up.

Mamizou begins to wake up and starts to yawn. "That was a nice sleep," she says as she begins to look around, hoping to not see a certain something. "And no Yashima to ruin it for me this time," relieved to see that the certain someone is not around. She starts to turn around and begins to talk again, "what a…," and pausing to hear a sudden "morning" out of nowhere.

Suddenly, Mamizou noticed a kitsune figure at the side of her bed that greets her with "morning". In the shock, she screams and then uses a bullet on it, which it then disappears.

Mamizou is seen still in the bed, holding her chest with her hand as her heart is beating fast, her head against the pillow, nearly scared to death. "What…,"she says whilst panting as she then continues, "... was that? Aren't I fully awake yet?" She puts her hand over her eyes and has a suspicion on who the culprit was that did this little "prank". "I bet it was that Yashima again. It couldn't have been me, I have had enough sleep." She says, dismissing it as just her eyes playing tricks on her due to the possibility of her being half asleep and she then begins to get up, "time to pay him a little visit. She fires a bullet at the entrance of her room and also begins to carefully navigate her room due to… uncertainty. "I can't believe I have to move like this," she says in caution.

Meanwhile, outside the premises of Myouren Temple, Yashima, in his "Child form" is seen fast asleep and dangling from a branch.

"No more sake, please," says a sleeping Yashima, who is in his "Child form". Just then, Nazrin appears and sees Yashima practically sleeping on the job. "And what are you doing, Yashima?" She says in a curious and slightly annoyed manner.

Yashima, still asleep, begins to talk in his sleep yet again. "Jerry is too noisy. Please kill her," managing to hear Nazrin in his sleep and thinking that she was apparently in a dream of his.

Nazrin begins get annoyed. "What!? (Begins to shout) WAKE UP, YOU INSOLENT YOUKAI!" Says the furious Nazrin.

Yashima suddenly wakes up due to Nazrin's shouting and then gets scared due to it, nearly losing his grip of the branch and falling off of it. "AHH! Wh-wh-what!? Oh, it's you, Nazrin," he says in a frighten state as she then begins to sweat from noticing Nazrin in his presence. Nervously, he asks this, "wh-why are you here?"

"I just came to check up on you and see if you are doing alright," confirms Nazrin. "But it seems like you are still slacking off!" She says, informing Yashima that he was doing the one thing that she did not expect to find; neglecting his duty.

"But I wasn't. Honest!" Persuades Yashima who later assumes that what he did was completely innocent, "It was just a short nap."

Nazrin signs due to what he said, excusing it as just a petty argument, "that is the same in my eyes! A nap is still away from working." "And anyway, didn't you say that your power only works when you are awake? Don't you think that, that makes sleeping even worse?" She asks him, since she distinctly remembers Yashima once confirming how his own power work, which just shows that his own actions is only his own carelessness.

Yashima begins to touch his digit fingers together continuously. "Well… that is true. But I'm sure I'll get rid of that side effect at some point," he says casually as he then laughs, taking what he said as just a petty thing, despite the fact that he wants to do his job.

Nazrin then responds to Yashima, "you better, for your sake… I know you need your rest and all, but you have the tendency to mess about during the times that you should be on guard," trying to seem understanding but at the same time, insinuating that Yashima is not fully committed to his job.

Yashima puts both of his hands against the back of his head and, admittedly, says, "that is my fault. It's because my illusions do half of my job and I feel like I can afford to leave my post," saying that he can afford to mess around, however that does not excuse the sleeping part...

"Whatever the case…," Nazrin says as she then turns around and starts to go to Myouren Temple after doing what she came to do and continues talking "... don't let me catch you asleep on the job again."

"Oh well," Yashima says. He begins to close his eyes and then yawns, still feeling sleepy after Nazrin disturbed him. "Life is hard for a bake-danuki," he complains as he begins to try and go back to sleep and says more, "and don't I know it?"

Just then, an angered Mamizou is seen going out of the premise of Myouren Temple and marching towards Yashima, shouting his name in the process.

Yashima, still on the branch and asleep, starts to open up an eye. "Oh great, the Teakettle has come," he says, not wanting Mamizou to turn up. He then begins to fake his crying, saying, "why can't I be left alone!?"

"Mamizou Futatsuiwa: What are you playing at?" Asks Mamizou, who is still cross with him, "are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"What are you talking about?" Says Yashima, pretending nothing happened and that Mamizou is just saying random things from out of the blue.

"Don't play dumb with me, dear!" Mamizou then says back to Yashima, catching him out on his lie. She continues, talking about what Yashima did or must have done before, "you left an illusion in my room before. Did you leave that before you left or did you come back again? Why do you insist on pulling these tricks on me?" She asks, wanting to know the answers on why he does such things.

Yashima begins to giggle, believing that the answer is obvious, which is weird considering Mamizou would particularly know answer already. "It's because I see you as a big sister," is what he ends up saying anyway.

This causes Mamizou to become confused. "You see me as a sister?" She asks, "wait? And this is why you do these pranks?"

Yashima goes and laughs again yet again and then begins to respond to Mamizou's question, or rather questions, "it's because I just want to have some fun with you! Up until now I have only spent time with a wolf girl. And you… You are just like me. I mean, you look like me," saying that all he wanted was fun, supposedly harmless. And perhaps Mamizou's appearance is another reason why he does this, or maybe it is why he calls her "sister".

"But that doesn't make it right," Mamizou protests, "there are things that people do not like, you know! And there are certainly people that do not like to have these pranks set in place against them."

"And there is one more thing that you should know, Teakettle," Yashima says, abou to inform Mamizou of something.

"What now?" Mamizou asks, who is about to get a shock.

Yashima then points towards Mamizou and tries to hint at something, "I am not actually here. Look behind you."

"What?" Asks Mamizou, who then gets touched on the shoulder oh so suddenly and then turns around to find something that caught her by surprise.

It was Yashima! In his… "Adult form," who was apparently behind Mamizou for quite some time. "I was never on that tree branch since before you got here," he says.

Mamizou immediately jumps as a reaction to seeing Yashima being her. "Ah! But. How? She says in her own confusion. She turns around to see the image of Yashima on the tree branch, who is basically there at the time and then the image disappears. "Oh, so it was another illusion of yours. Why do you do that?" She asks.

Yashima then begins to confess, "it's a habit of mine. And especially since I came to Myouren Temple." He continues, talking about his own abilities this time, "I told you, I create illusions. They are my speciality, just like transforming is your speciality."

Mamizou begins to look intrigued as Yashima just said something that she weirdly thought he had no knowledge of. "How do you know that I can transform?" She asks.

"Well, you mean that human with a leaf and a scarf was never you? Come on, I've seen you transform before," he says to Mamizou, acknowledging that she can indeed transform.

Mamizou thinks to herself, "shoot, he knows too much already…"

"Not that it never occurred to me. I have kept an eye on you since being here," says Yashima, who implies, considering he is a guardian as such, has been keeping watch over Mamizou.

An unconvinced Mamizou then says this, "but I've never seen you apart from that day when you attacked me, though," since she does not ever recall seeing him past that time when they had a battle.

Yashima then begins to say more to Mamizou, about a part of his past when he came to Myouren Temple and more. "Oh yes, you were here when I came with Byakuren. You might not remember, but that was the first time we saw eye to eye. But ever since staying with you since that day, I have been in the shadows, especially since becoming the guardian, where I would spend most of my days outside the premise."

"The first time I ever…," says Mamizou as she then tries to think, "wait. Now that you mention it, I do remember Byakuren coming into the premise with someone," she says, finally remembering something.

"Oh? So you do remember, at last?" Asks Yashima

Mamizou tries hard to remember what she thinks she thought that she could remember. "I… vaguely remember. It was… it was…," she says as she finally begins to remember something.

___________________  
Mamizou's memory  
___________________

Going back 110 years into the past, just before Yashima was even a part of Myouren Temple. Mamizou is seen sweeping the grounds of the Myouren Temple, just doing a bit of work around the area.

"Hello there, Mamizou!" Greets Shou, appearing in front of her.

"Hello, Shou. Do you know where Nazrin is?" Mamizou asks, curious on where Nazrin is.

Shou responds in an unsure manner, "Nazrin?" She begins to think, "not really sure. I think she had to deal with a few people before," he says.

Nazrin is seen arriving in the area that both Mamizou and Shou are in. "Shou, you dropped this," she informs her and then goes to give Shou her pagoda. .

"Wow!" A surprised Shou says in such a manner, "I was wondering where that was. You really are a lifesaver, Nazrin!"

"Don't lose it next time, OK? I'm off to the temple. Byakuren should be back soon." Says Nazrin.

Mamizou catches what Nazrin just said. She then asks her about it, "what, Byakuren's coming back? I did not know that she left. What is her business this time?"

"She went off to Myouren's grave to pray for him," explains Mamizou, telling her where she went since she herself, knew.

Mamizou begins to ask something out of wonder, since Nazrin said something that made her think otherwise, "really? But, didn't we bury him here? Why do it away from the temple?"

"It was for personal reasons," Nazrin says, saying that this is something that does not concern the Temple or the residents, "we felt that if we buried him here it would only get in Byakuren's way. You know how sensitive these things are. So she goes out once every so often to pray because she still cares for him."

"I am starting to feel like I should not have heard any of this." Thinks Mamizou, thinking that what she heard was really not meant for her own ears. And why should it? Not like it concerned her at all.

Shou then begins to talk, but about a different matter, "meanwhile, Nue and Koishi left us. Well, I said Koishi left, but she was really kicked out."

"Now, I can understand why Nue left, but why did you boot Koishi?" Mamizou asks, saying this this is both something that she understands and misunderstands due to it being of two different things.

Shou goes to say this to Mamizou, "she was bringing in whatever youkai she could find. The one in particular was a kasha."

Nazrin has quite a big respond towards Mamizou as a continuation of what Shou ended with, "we already have Kogasa and that youkai just was not that scary to be truthful. But the main reason why we did not invite her was because we thought that she would try to steal things such as corpses. This isn't the place for that. So we stopped her from coming in and kicked Koishi out because she herself, wanted to have things her way. Besides, she's a satori. Mind you, her mind reading abilities are what make her so frightening"

"So now, only Byakuren is the only one who can recruit youkai?" Mamizou asks Nazrin.

Shou then says this to Mamizou in response to her question, "that is what we think is best, yes. This is like a safe haven for us after all and she is the one who brought us all here. It only makes sense that she does it," hinting that it is thanks to Byakuren that they all have a place to call "home".

Just then, Byakuren appears. And she happens to appear with someone.

"I think I will go and see Kogasa. See you later!" Shou says just before leaving for the graveyard.

Mamizou then spots Byakuren and begins to greet her, "oh, hello there, Byakuren, dear."

"Hello everyone. Well, I have come back peacefully," Byakuren announces.

"So you had a nice evening?" Asks Nazrin, who then turns her attention to something else since Byakuren seem to have someone with her, "but who is that with you?"

Yashima is seen next to Byakuren and by her side, grabbing tight hold of her.

Byakuren has this to say to Nazrin, "oh, I was going coming to that. Nazrin, could you take care of him for me? I found him around as I was on my way back here," supposedly wanting Nazrin to take care the business involving him.

"What's the cutie's name? Do you know?" An eager Nazrin asks.

"I never thought to ask. It was all so sudden," says Byakuren, saying that she never really asked him since it never seemed to occur since it was not on her mind, apparently.

Mamizou then goes towards Byakuren and then looks at Yashima and begins to say something to him, as a casual greeting, "hello there, little one." She then starts to bring herself down and asks him something, "tell me, what is your name?"

Yashima does respond, but he mumbles his response, "Ya-Yashima. Yashima Hogo."

"Leave him for now, Mamizou," an alerted Byakuren says as she tries to make Mamizou aware of the situation, "he is scared at the moment, don't you see that? I cannot imagine what he went through."

Mamizou, who is still level with Yashima, gets intrigued by what Byakuren says. "What? So, you saved this poor boy?" She asks.

Yashima, as a reaction, slowly starts to cry.

Byakuren is seen being alerted by this. "Now look what you did!" She says in a heightened tone of voice. "Nazrin, help me calm him down," she says.

"Why me?" Questions Nazrin as she then continues, " I'm not good when it comes to comfort," hinting that she is not suitable for this.

Mamizou tries to comfort Yashima. "Shh… Please, don't cry. You are in safe hands, now. Byakuren won't hurt you and neither will we," she says.

Byakuren just looks at Mamizou and says this to her, "Mamizou…?"

Mamizou begins to hug Yashima and carries on trying to comfort him, saying, "there, there, dear. I won't bite," and thinks this, "well, not you, anyway."

Yashima slowly stops crying due to what Mamizou had been doing and he begins to think to himself, "who is this person? She is so gentle."

Byakuren is astonished by this and has this to say, "wow, Mamizou, I'm impressed! Who knew that you were good with other youkai?"

Mamizou then gives Byakuren a weird look. "Don't patronise me," she says to her, not impressed at what she said to her. She then looks at Yashima and asks him a question, "what youkai are you? From looking at you now, you look a bit like me".

Yashima, now a bit calmer than before, replies, "I'm…," he looks around the area with a look of uncertainty but then carries on talking, "... I'm Yashima no Hage-tanuki."

"So you are a bake-danuki like me? That must mean that you can also transform." Says Mamizou, assuming that she knows a little about him already.

Yashima has something to confess, with might seem as a bit of an upset on Mamizou's part, "I'm sorry…," he looks away before continuing, "... I can't transform."

Mamizou questions him on this, "what do you mean, you can't transform?"

"Give it a rest now, Mamizou," says Byakuren.

Mamizou goes to step away from Yashima and bring herself up again. She then turns her attention to Byakuren and says this, "say, Byakuren. Could I take this one off your hands?" Implying that she would like Yashima for some reason.

Nazrin just looks at Mamizou and protests, "but Byakuren told me to look after him. What are you playing at this time, Mamizou?"

"Nothing at all. I just thought that maybe I should be the one to care for him. I have felt a little lonely since Nue left." Mamizou says, hinting that it is all innocent that and that only felt lonely in Nue's absence.

"Well, if that is what you want," Byakuren says as she then pushes Yashima towards Mamizou, "go to her, little one."

"I hope you know what you're doing…," a concerned Nazrin says.

Mamizou then leaves with Yashima.

Nazrin to Byakuren, "Byakuren, why make Mamizou take care of him?" Since she is uncertain on the decision.

"Why not? They are both of the same species. It seems to make sense that one of his kind looks after him," says Byakuren, implying that is makes sense for one of one species to only take care of another of the same.

Nazrin is still not impressed by this as she does not think that Mamizou is a good enough candidate and feels like someone else should do what Mamizou chose to do. "But do you really think Mamizou can be trusted with him? She doesn't exactly have a bedside manner. Or at least, not when she is under pressure," she says.

Byakuren closes her eyes and smiles) Then he best not get on her nerves. (Opens her eyes and has this to say, "who knows? Maybe they will get on like a house on fire. You saw how she handled him just now."

Nazrin rolls her eyes and responds to Byakuren in an unsure manner, "I suppose…"

Meanwhile, with Mamizou and Yashima.

Mamizou is seen talking to Yashima, wondering what happened and why Byakuren brought him here. "So Byakuren just found you, did she? What happened back then?" She asks.

"I'm sorry, it's not something I want to talk about," says Yashima, wanting to keep things to himself.

Bu Mamizou demands answers, so she asks him, "oh? Why not?"

Yashima begins to act worried by this. He then inexplicably says, "I just want to leave all of that behind."

Mamizou begins to look concerned and thinks to herself, just what happened with him? Oh well, I won't force it out of him."

Yashima, out of the blue, asks Mamizou a quick question, "so you are a bake-danuki as well?"

Mamizou begins to act happy. Happy at the fact that he was able to identify what she was. "That's right! And it seems like I will be taking care of you for now. You can thank Byakuren later," she says to Yashima.

"Then that must make you a relative of mine?" Yashima asks Mamizou, thinking that there was some connection between them both.

Mamizou begins to wonder. "I never thought of it that way. I suppose it would," she says.

They both arrive at Mamizou's residence.

"And here we are. This is where you will be staying for the time being. So make yourself at home," Mamizou kindly announces.

Yashima becomes surprised by this and asks, "really!?"

Mamizou, as a way to reassure him, has this to say to him, "why, yes. This is your home now. Myouren Temple is a safe haven for us youkai. And don't worry about starving or thirst. I will bring you all of those needs."

"Really?" He repeats and he then begins to sob. He had never heard such kindness before. "You don't know how happy that makes me!"

Mamizou sghs. "Now, dear. Don't start crying on me again," she says to him.

Yashima continues to sob and unintentionally says this due to the mood that he was in, "my life has been nothing but despair. I was not wanted by anyone and I felt discarded. I was away from the world, lost and abandoned. Then Byakuren… Byakuren…"

Mamizou tries to comfort Yashima yet again. "Everything will be alright now," she says.

Yashima unwittingly has more to add as he stops crying and says this, "I just… I just did not know what to do anymore. Why can't I just escape reality and leave it all behind!? Why can't I just leave this cruel mistress? Why!? I don't want to feel this pain in my heart anymore." He then begins to yell, "I WANT TO ESCAPE! ESCAPE THE PAIN!" He says as he then begins to cry again.

Mamizou begins to shed a tear due to what she had heard. He then begins to talk to Yashima, trying to convince him of something, "but you are here now. I promise that Byakuren and I will look after you. You won't feel abandoned anymore. I will service your needs and Byakuren will keep you safe. Shou, Nazrin and Kagi were saved by Byakuren just like you and Kagi is just like you in that she felt discarded. Well, I call her "Kagi" anyway, but her real name is Kogasa. You are not alone here. We all share a similar pain."

"Do you…," says Yashima as he sniffle in the middle of his sentence and then carries on, "... really mean that?"

"Yes. We all have something in common and that is why we are here," confirms Mamizou, "this is why you are here, don't you see? Byakuren didn't bring you here because she wanted more youkai, she brought you here because she thought that you were in need of help. This residence is a refuge for us youkai."

"You really…, " says Yashima, as he then begins to move towards Mamizou and then jumps on her and begins to say the rest of what he was going to say rather emotionally, but in a sense of relief, "... MEAN IT!? This makes me so, so happy." He then kisses Mamizou on the cheek.

Mamizou begins to blush by this. "Now, that's enough of that!" She says to Yashima, wanting him to cease.

A now content Yashima begins to get off of Mamizou. "I promise I will be good to you, Big Sister! Can I call you "Sister"?" He asks.

"If that is what makes you happy, then sure," responds Mamizou.

_______________  
End of memory  
_______________

Back in the present now, present day Mamizou, after remembering what she had forgotten all those years ago, begins to look shocked due to her own realisation. "So you were that person who I took care of all these years?" She questions.

Yashima, who has changed his personality and is now in his "Child form", seems rather glad that Mamizou was able to remember. He says, "it took you long enough to remember! And I'm really grateful to you for being there for me."

"You said that you would be good to me, didn't you? So what are you doing making MY life a hell?" Says Mamizou, wondering what Yashima's intentions are since he said one thing and to her, seemingly contradicts himself.

Yashima answers to Mamizou exactly why he is such a pain for her, "it's because I like you and I just want to have a bit of fun with you. I was lonely for so long and you helped cheer me up! I owe it to you and Byakuren."

"And this is why you have been so mean to me? You wanted someone to love?" Questions Mamizou.

"I wanted someone who cared about me. You were the only person that treated me like I was part of a family. You are like a sister to me and that is why I act the way I do. It's not because I hate you or anything. It's none of that," explains Yashima.

Mamizou then says something that she recalls hearing Yashima say on that day, "you just wanted to hide yourself from reality. That is what you said."

Yashima starts to look sad by this and says to Mamizou, "my past was a horrible one. It's not something I like to talk about."

"But your other form, the "adult" form. That's not really a transformation?" Mamizou asks Yashima, wanting a bit of an insight.

Yashima then says to Mamizou exactly what that form of his is and why he uses it, "that is only a physical illusion of my former self. This form that you are seeing now is my real form. It is the only type of "transformation" that I can do. I'm Yashima, the Hage-tanuki, the Guardian of Myouren Temple. I use the form to suit my appearance."

"But I have not seen you in so long. You were out here all this time?" A wondering Mamizou says.

"I know, it's been years since we saw each other. I spent a lot of my time out here and when I came into the premise I would never see you there. Then when I became the guardian of this place I started staying outside even more. I became so distant from you, it stung. I only started seeing you again a few years ago, but I never had the chance to talk to you. It must have been 85 or so years since I last saw you. It's no wonder you forgot about me," he says.

This makes Mamizou think for a moment. "Huh, so being a guardian took its toll on you, did it?" She asks him.

Yashima grips his hands tightly. This was the job that he wanted but it ended up meaning that he had to lose something. "But it's what I wanted! How else am I meant to pay my debt to Byakuren? The person who made this all possible and changed my entire life," he says to Mamizou, explaining that he is only doing it for Byakuren.

"I'm… I'm sorry," says Mamizou as she begins to feel guilty, "that was thoughtless of me." Not wanting to continue, she begins to leave, but not before saying, "I think I will leave now. See you after."

"Hey! It's fine. I just like staying here and being with you! I am forever grateful." Says Yashima.

Mamizou starts to shed tears by this, feeling a little bit sorry for hearing far too much. She thinks to herself, "I can't believe what he is saying. He really does mean it." She wipes her face as she stops crying and carries on thinking, "he must have been through so much to feel this way. I just cannot understand how he must feel at the moment. He must have suffered so much."

"And don't forget to mind your step!" Yashima shouts to Mamizou, saying his catchphrase in the process.

End of chapter

Next chapter: The Thought That Counts


	8. The Thought That Counts

Moving away from the events at Myouren Temple and carrying on from where the other chapter ended, we are now at the Yakumo house as Yukari is seen going into the house after coming out of the portal and begins to place Chen onto a bed.

"Get some rest, Chen. It is already night and so much has happened today," says Yukari, who then goes to examine Chen's body, identifying the damage that had been caused as she then begins to wonder about i, "there is much blood. And what are these burn marks? Chen, who was with you for you to get these wounds?"

Yukari then goes to get a towel and starts to clean the blood from Chen and begins to think, "I should have expected this. Ran giving Chen too much energy must have had some side effects. Clearly that earring was not strong enough to keep Chen's power under control. Ran, just what were you thinking?" Believing that she was partly to blame and that she should have done something to prevent all of this to happen.

She finishes cleaning Chen of the blood that had be coming out of her eyes, mouth and even through her own skin and then talks to herself, realising something, "oh, that is right. I never told you all of this beforehand. It was my fault, after all. I should have been straightforward with you." She then goes to look for something to heal Chen's wounds and then thinks to herself yet again as she begins to get amazed by something. Something extraordinary, "in fact, I am amazed that Chen's clothes are not damaged at all. Who was it that gave them to her? Because I know that I do not have such items."

But before she gets something for Chen's burns, Yukari decides to get yet another earring, one that is stronger than the last one. She then manages to find one and then goes to look for something for the burns.

Yukari goes to Chen after finding something. "I am glad I had this "Fukugen" lying around. This should help clear Chen of those wounds," she says as she begins to put the Fukugen into Chen's mouth, which is basically a self-healing pill that helps the body repair itself, by opening her mouth and then forcing her hand in. She makes sure that the head is upright and puts the pill down her throat.

And so, a caring Yukari then says, "those wounds should be gone by tomorrow since it will not take effect quickly." She then looks in Ran's direction as she then decides to then do something about her. "Now I need to do something about Ran," she says as she begins to walk towards a sleeping Ran.

Yukari then thinks to herself, "I need to do something about the link between the two. Kyōzon signifies the bond between shikigami and master. It is the reason for the shikigami's existence." That is when she begins to question the significance of Kyōzon, "but what if the Master should die? Even I do not know the answer to that. It could be that nothing will happen at all or it could mean mental damage to the shikigami."

After stopping at where Ran is, she begins to put her hands on her chest, attempting to do something that she has in mind, and thinks to herself, "but I can at least weaken the Ketsuyuketsu so that you do not take this much damage again. I cannot weaken it by much, but it should help." She then talks to herself, "this should help ease your pain, Ran. I am sorry that I cannot do anymore." She then begins the procedure after putting her own hand on to Ran's chest, "but if I were to weaken the Ketsuyuketsu even further, the shock would kill you. You are a part of Chen now, which means that your DNA is now inside of Chen. This is all possible because of Kyōzon, I'm afraid."

After finishing up with Ran, Yukari goes to Chen after finding a new earring so she can replace the old one with it.

Yukari take the earring out and then placing a new one in after imbuing it with her power, this time adding a little bit more and thinks to herself, but is still surprised at Chen in general," but at least Chen will not be affected. And I still cannot believe Chen was strong enough to overpower the earring. Ran, just how much power did you put into her?" Wondering about Ran since she was the one who created Chen, but it was Yukari's own fault for explaining everything, ergo Ran used more power than needed.

"There's no need to ask her about it. She would only get confused. And besides," she says as she begins to yawn, feeling tired after what happened during the day and carries on, "... I am dreadfully tired and it is already night." She then begins to go to her room and thinks to herself, "oh, Ran… My heart will always be with you."

Meanwhile, at the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Satori is wondering where Orin is. "Hmm, where is Orin? She really is late coming back," she says as she then begins to hear knocking. Believing it to be Orin, she facepalms and she does not understand why Orin does not just open the door. "Oh, for…," she says, as she then takes her hand away and shouts, "open the door!"

Orin is then opening the door and panting as she then falls to the floor. "Sorry… I'm… late, Satori," in an exhausted state, her panting causing her to delay her words.

Satori begins to turn and look at Orin and then begins to shout, "Orin! Just where have you…" She stops talking as she was looking at Orin. Her eyes widen as she begins to blush, due to Orin being naked.

Orin gets back up and continues panting. Still having trouble talking, she says this to Satori, "I had… a little bit of trouble. It was…. It was… Chen, Satori. I did what you asked and found the imposter... and killed her. But then she…," she starts to breathe in heavily and then exhales and then carries on talking, "... she found out what I did."

Satori continues to blush, but then closes her eyes forcefully and grips one of her hands in an annoyed manner.

Orin continues to pant, injured and with her breathing not back to normal and going in a steady pace. She then begins to explain to Satori, "I'm hurt all over, now. Chen… She… Well, she got… the wrong end of the stick. She… She… She thinks I killed her… master."

Satori, who is irritated at this point due to Orin being exposed, begins to shout at her, "COULD YOU PLEASE PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, YOU DAMN CAT!?"

Orin decides to go to her room due to what Satori asked of her. Limping to her room, she says to Satori, "I'm sorry. It was all so sudden." She stops and turns to Satori and begins to act funny towards Satori, "but we are both ladies, right? What's wrong with seeing me naked?" She asks, trying to provoke her.

Satori looks at Orin in a weird way and gives Satori a fair warning in the form of a decision, "either you shut up now, or I perform your funeral later."

Orin just smiles as she thinks to herself, "it's so fun teasing her!" After having a little bit of fun, she then goes into her room.

"Oh, by the way…," Satori says as she then goes to where Orin went, but just outside the room and then carries on, curious about something, "... I noticed that you were limping just now. What happened?"

Orin is getting dressed at this point as she does not want to get scolded by Satori again. As she does this, she answers Satori's question, "I was attacked by Chen. I was on my way to fetch that person and found her."

This makes Satori wonder as she then asks Orin, "Chen? The nekomata? Why would she be there, of all places?"

So then Orin explains, "I don't know but she seemed furious. In fact, I am starting to wonder about her. She… How can I put this? Was she always a monster?" She asks her, wondering what Chen really is since to Orin, she was not… normal.

Satori begins to wonder herself and asks her, "what do you mean, "monster"? You are saying this to someone who hardly knows her," she informs Orin.

Orin then explains herself and also goes as far as to talk about what happened when both her and Satori saw Chen fighting Ran, "back then, when we saw her fighting her Master. She cut off a tail, didn't she? Back when I fought her, I got overpowered by her."

"Just what are you trying to say exactly?" Satori asks as she does not really understand what Orin is saying. Chen being more powerful than Orin? This has Satori demanding answers.

Orin goes out of the room, fully dressed. But as eager as she is, she asks Satori a question. A question that is seemingly important to her, "Satori, I need to know. What is she?"

Satori closes her eyes. "She is a shikigami," she replies.

"A shikigami?" Orin asks Satori.

Satori then begins to explain what she was talking about, using her words of wisdom, "yes, a shikigami. It is a youkai that was created by another youkai who is strong enough to have one. I have heard stories that it involves a type of ritual.

"What is the ritual?" Orin asks, wanting to know more.

But even Satori does not know all of the answers. "I am not really sure. All I know is that it involves a dead animal," she says.

Orin begins to feel disappointed at her answer, the answer that she herself, was looking for. She sighs and then thinks, "figures…"

"As soon as I heard Chen talking about a master I had my suspicions that she was a shikigami," says Satori.

This puzzles Orin. "But this doesn't make any sense. I nearly died back there. How… Just HOW is she that strong?" She asks, since to her she should still have been stronger than her and she ended up nearly dying. It is all mysterious to her.

Satori begins to plan ahead and makes a decision, "hmm, maybe it is time for me to give that kitsune a visit. But not now."

"And I need to go back and collect the…," she says as she falls over and cries in pain, shouting out, "NYAAA!"

"You stay here and recuperate, Missy!" Satori says, demanding that she stays.

Orin protests, "but it's just an injured arm and leg."

"JUST an injured arm and leg? JUST?" Satori asks. She then begins to say more towards Orin, "you treat your body as if it were a rag doll," hinting that she is far too careless.

Orin, due to her own personality, begins to fake her crying. "OK, then, you meanie!" She cries.

Satori just ignores this and says this to her, "Go and get some sleep and then go after your cat cart tomorrow. You should be better tomorrow."

Orin leaves the area.

Satori begins to wonder about what Orin mentioned before, "I am curious as to what Orin mentioned. Chen, a monster? Being so strong? Perhaps I should give that kitsune a visit."

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house the following day.

Ran wakes up as she stretches and yawns. "That was a nice sleep," she says as she then begins to wonder about something, "but what happened?" She begins to call for Yukari, "Yukari! Oh, Yukari!" She then feels something on her mouth after moving it and then goes to put her hand on the bit that she felt the sensation from. This causes Ran to wonder as she thinks, "what is this?" She then looks at her hand in shock and carries on thinking, "have I been bleeding" She then begins to shout, calling for Yukari yet again, but in a serious manner this time, "YUKARI! GET IN HERE NOW!"

Yukari enters the room after waking up, which explains why she did not come to Ran sooner. She then says this to her, "What is it, Ran? People are trying to sleep, you know."

"Why is there dry blood on my face, Yukari?" A curious Ran questions.

Yukari starts to sweat and become nervous. Ran having blood on her was due to her receiving Chen's own pain due to the Ketsuyuketsu and that the Kyōzon, the bond between Shikigami and Master. She did not want to commit herself and say to Ran why was bleeding.

Wanting to keep Ran in the dark, she insincerely says this to her, "that is because you had a blood orange yesterday and you clean forgot. I never realised it would dry up like that."

Ran begins to catch onto what Yukari is saying as she remembers not having a blood orange. "But I did not eat any fruit yesterday," she says.

"Oh, right," says Yukari as she begins to mock Ran and opens her fan in front of her, "foxes are more into eggs and rabbits and…"

A displeased Ran looks at Yukari in a weird way and has this to say to her, "you can shut up, now…"

"Oh, don't let me spoil your mood, now," says a joyful Yukari.

This starts to irritate Ran. "Drop it, Yukari!" She says.

Meanwhile, Chen begins to wake up.

In a nearby room, waking up and slowly opens and closes her eyes, Chen begins to says something in the form of a question, or rather "questions", "where am I? Am I home?" She begins to get up and then stops and begins to put her hand against her forehead as she is suddenly hurt, "ow, my head! What happened to me?"

Still in the room next door to where Chen is, Yukari is talking to Ran, "actually, Ran. Your eight tails are starting to bother me."

Ran sighs at this. "What now?" She asks as she then continues, "do not say you actually have something to restore my tail."

Yukari has some disappointing news for Ran as she has this to say, "if only I did. Unfortunately, Fukugen does not bring back missing limbs."

But this comment of Yukari's causes Ran to wonder and so she asks her, "since you brought it up anyway, is there any way to restore it? A kitsune's tail never grows back on its own and they fall out over time."

"Who knows?" Questions Yukari as she then jokingly makes another comment, "maybe my witch counterpart will magically give you another!"

Ran becomes puzzled at this rather strange comment of Yukari's as she begins to delay her own words, trying to think about what she meant, "your… witch… counterpart? Hmm… Who is that, exactly?"

Yukari just smiles and closes her eyes. "Oh, never you mind, my sweet vixen, " she says, keeping the details to herself. She then opens her eyes and begins to say something to Ran as she wants to say something meaningful to her, "anyhow, I need to tell you something. Something quite urgent."

Chen, after waking up from her unconsciousness, begins listening in from the room that she is in. "I hear people talking," she says as she begins to wonder who is it, "Is that Yukari? What could she be talking about?" She then starts to get out of bed and starts to walk, but wobbles a bit.

Ran, from within the other room, asks Yukari a question related to what she just announced, "really? What needs to be said to me that is considered "urgent"?"

Chen, still in that very room in which she slept in, falls over due to her unsteady movements. "Ow!" She reacts, "what's wrong with me today? I'm walking strange." Seemingly, that battle that she had affected her in some way for her to be having difficulties moving.

Ran had heard something from the other room, that "something" being the thud from Chen falling, and gets alerted by it. "Did you hear something?" She asks Yukari.

Yukari begins to think about this and after coming up with an idea, says this to Ran, "oh, that will be Chen. She was sleeping and…," she then looks at Ran's mouth, which is starting to irritate her in a way, and continues talking, "... could you please wipe your mouth?" She them puts her fan in front of her face and makes a remark about her unclean mouth, "It's revolting."

Ran gets herself a cloth that was on the table at the time and begins to wipe herself down. She then manages to clear herself of the dry blood that had come about when she was having her ordeal. Yukari then begins to talk to her.

"Now, Ran… I need to tell you about your shikigami," says Yukari, "I need to tell you that Chen has to learn to control herself, control her own power."

Chen, who is eavesdropping, begins to open her eyes wide and thinks to herself, "what?" She then begins to talk to herself and still in wonder, "what is she saying? And I thought I heard my master. My master… is alive?" After coming to the realisation that her master could be alive after hearing a familiar voice, she opens up her eyes even wider and says in such a relieved, yet surprised tone, "ALIVE!?"

Yukari is still telling Ran about this one important thing that she has to know about since it involves her especially as well as her shikigami, "I told you about unstable shikigami before and how applying too much power can lead to one. It's imperative that…" She stops talking beyond this point as...

Chen then bursts into the room, emotionally and begins to say, "MASTER!" She then, after running up to Ran, begins to hug her and cries. "I thought I lost you! I thought I lost you forever!" She says.

Yukari opens her eyes wide and then closes them a bit and makes a comment about Chen's storming in, "ah, the cat awakes."

"I… I…," says a delicate Chen, who is sniffling and then continues to talk, "... I thought you died! So much happened. But I'm glad that you're safe!" She then cries even more and full of emotion, she says, "I THOUGHT I KILLED YOU!"

This sudden episode seems strange to Ran. She looks at Yukari in a weird way, thinking that something is amiss, and thinks to herself, "something tells me I missed something…" Knowing Ran's luck, she did miss something. In fact, she did, full stop. She then looks at Chen and questions her due to what she was crying out just now, "Chen, what are you talking about? I have been alive all this time. Oh, what madness you come up with."

"But…," says Chen, who begins hyperventilating and then sniffling again, causing her to cease for a moment. She then manages to continue her sentence, "... I saw you dead on the ground. A kasha was going to take you away from me! My life… I thought my life was ruined!"

Ran starts to wonder about this as Chen said something which sort of puzzles Ran. She then thinks to herself, "a shinigami I would understand, but a kasha?"

"I want to be with you as part of a family. You are the only thing that I have in this world that I can think of and this… is… my... HOME!" Says Chen, whose emotions still are not under control.

Ran has to do something to calm Chen down as she cannot see her like this. She tries to comfort a crying Chen and so she says, "there, there, Chen, you sentimental thing." She then begins to hug Chen and continues, "You are in safe hands, now." She then lights up a Kitsunebi, which appears on one of her tail. "This should keep you a little warm for a little bit," she says to Chen, trying to warm her up.

Yukari begins to smile and thinks to herself, "this is getting interesting. But Ran seems to be handling it well. I was thinking that she was going to snap like before. But looking at her now, she seems moved by my words. Or is it because of something else? I gave her, her own shikigami so she would hopefully be happier." She makes a fist and puts her hand against her chin, using it as support to keep her chin in place as she puts the elbow onto the table and thinks again, "I only did what I would was best for her since I was wearing her out with all the work that I gave her. Oh, how horrible am I?"

"Now, then… Does that not feel better?" Asks Ran, as she extinguishes her Kitsunebi.

Yukari starts to sweat, not by the heat, it was because of something. She thinks about what just happened in her own way, "... If only she did not take the "warming up to people" part so literally."

Ran takes her hands away from Chen. "And now, you've stopped crying. See? You are feeling better already!" She says in a joyful way.

Chen looks at Ran, giving her a cute look that looks like she is about to cry. "Th-thank you, Ran," she says, expressing her gratitude asns he then puts her head against Ran's body and continues, "thank you!"

Yukari begins to look bored. Feeling rude due to herself wanting them both to hurry rude, she says, "oh, enough with the melodrama. I get the point."

Ran just looks at Yukari in an annoyed sense. "It's called "having a moment", Yukari!" She says, aggressively.

Things start to look up for Chen as she starts to laugh at this. "Oh, Master. You're so funny!" She says to Ran.

This was not exactly the type of response that Ran wanted to hear as she then starts to sweat and twitch her mouth.

How ever, Yukari found it slightly amusing as she then begins to smirk and then begins to think to herself, "that moment when you called out on something…"

Chen then takes her hands away and also moves away from Ran. She then begins to reassure herself, "So, you're alive, I'm alive and…," she says as she looks Yukari and carries on, "... your master's alive." She closes her eyes and smiles. "and this isn't a dream," she says as she then looks at herself, looking at her tail and such, making herself aware of what she is and says, "I'm a… nekomata, a cat with two tails. And I do have somewhere that I belong!" Then begins to twirl. "Oh, I'm so happy!" She says, relieving.

Yukari looks at this and gives off a shocked expression as she then thinks to herself, "relieved, more like."

Meanwhile, at the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Satori is beginning to wake up and getting out of bed. "Oh, I needed that. A nice, long rest for when I am tired," she says as she begins to get up. "And not even a damn cat or bird to frustrate me," she says, feeling glad that no one disturbed her. She then begins to leave her room and wonders where Orin is, since she has somewhere that she needs to be, "now I just need to find that puss."

Just as Satori leaves her room, she notices Orin about to leave the Palace.

Satori begins covering an eye with her hand. Looking at Orin, she says, "leaving so soon, Mistress of Mayhem?"

Orn just closes her eyes and acts nervous as she turns to Satori. She then begins to say exactly what she was doing, "I need to get my cart. I left it there, you know. And I didn't want to wake you."

"But I have already decided," says Satori.

Orin looks intrigued due to her comment. "What are you doing? I wanted to go alone. I need to get the cart and that corpse." It seems like Orin did not want to disturb Satori, after all.

Satori looks at Orin in a scary sense as she then talks to her about it, "but you will not be walking alone, my dear, sweet Orin. I will come with you since I have a bone to pick with someone."

This frightens Orin, weirdly enough. Due to Satori's expression, she begins to look scared and gulps.

Still in her scary fashion, Satori continues, "would you like me to free Koishi whilst I am at it?" Trying to get Orin worked up.

Not wanting to hear anymore of this, Orin begins to run out of the palace.

Satori covers her eye again yet again and thinks to herself, "what a hypocrite that you are. You do not like it when the tables turn, do you?"

Orin begins to pant from the short run out of the Palace. "I'm not going to put up with that…," she says as she begins to fall over, since she has not fully recovered, and continues in a soft tone, "... nya…"

Satori is seen exiting the palace. "Get up from the ground, Missy! You are to not kiss my feet or kneel before me just yet," she says in a pompous manner.

Orin then begins to get up. "Can I go now?" She asks, eager to go and collect her cart after bringing herself up. She then begins to fake her crying as she then says, "I miss my cart!"

"Yes, I think it is about that time," says Satori as she then begins to move.

Orin begins to smirk at what just came up. With Satori being alongside her on her journey she will have so much fun! Just the way she likes it, being able to torment Satori. What a golden opportunity this is so Orin indeed! She then thinks to herself, "and then I get to have some more fun with you."

Satori fires a bullet at Orin and purposely misses. She did not do this unwillingly as she read Orin's thoughts. " Maybe you do want your funeral, after all," she says.

Orin looks shocked by this and thinks to herself yet again, but with a bit more caution this time, "or maybe I should do absolutely nothing. Not a peep from me." She then begins to talk to herself. Not wanting Satori to hear her, she begins to whisper, "but I will have my fun."

They both leave.

Meanwhile, at Myouren Temple.

Yashima, in his "Child form," is seen swinging from a branch. "Weee! Weee!" he cries, joyfully, as he begins drinking from a sake bottle that he stole from Mamizou despite the fact he has he own sake bottle that was wrapped around him with rope. "Getting a bit dizzy, now," he comments.

Mamizou is seen arriving and begins to shout at Yashima, "Yashima! Get back here!"

Yashima opens his eyes wide. "Oh?" He says, being alerted of Mamizou's presence, He stops swinging, picks himself up and starts to bring himself to the top of the branch whilst dropping the bottle of sake. "A Teakettle's just arrived!" He shouts as Mamizou fires a bullet at Yashima, which is then dodged.

"I swear, tanuki, anymore of that and you really will die. I don't care if I cared for you in the past!" A slightly irritated Mamizou says.

Yashima lies on the branch, body to the branch, with his arm dangling from it. "Aww… Such a killjoy!" He says, in such a displeasing manner. He questions for an alternative, "can I call you "Camille" instead?"

"Camille?" She says as she then begins to think about this. "That doesn't sound too bad," says Mamizou, believing the new nickname to be OK in her eyes.

"Camille the Camellia!" Mocks Yashima.

Mamizou is not happy by this. Not… one… bit. She makes a fist and gets really annoyed as she shouts out, "YOU REALLY DO WANT TO DIE!" She then goes to pick up her sake bottle and notices that is was empty. "You drank it all? Why, you greedy, little…" She says.

This just causes Yashima to giggle. "The nice thing about having a sister is that I can use whatever she has!" He says to Mamizou, giving off that "what is yours is mine" feeling.

How ever this gives Mamizou an idea since Yashima's own words will become to bite him. She begins to smirk and gives off a mischievous look. Oh, really?, She says as a bullet begins to appear on her hand as she continues, "do you want to reconsider?"

Yashima begins to whis eyes and thinks to himself, "oh, boy. I'm in trouble now." He then talks to himself about the situation that he will soon be in, "maybe it's time I get a move on." And so, he begins to get up.

Mamizou starts firing bullets at Yashima, who starts moving about. "Stop moving, you!" She demands.

Yashima tries to dodge Mamizou's bullets. "Hey! I have traps set up, you know!" He warns Mamizou, "remember, you still have to mind your step."

"Why? In case I start dreaming up reality again? Then all I have to do is stay still, right?" Questions Mamizou.

"Well…," says Yashima as he begins to think for a moment before continuing, "... yes." This must mean that what Mamizou thought was correct.

Mamizou's firing begins to cease. "And if I hit them with these bullets, they are sure to disappear. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the disadvantage to your traps," she says to Yashima, saying that she sees right through Yashima's own power.

Yashima applauds Mamizou for finding this piece of information out. "I'm impressed. You found out that much already." He begins to move his sword and carries on talking, "but maybe we should get some friends."

Mamizou gets confused by this. Friends? Yashima has friends? Whatever does he mean? "What do you mean by "friends"?" She asks him.

After moving his sword around in front of himself, two blue illusionary tanuki begin to appear and he then starts to giggle again. "This is what I mean!" Says Yashima.

Mamizou then looks at the unknown power of Yashima's. "Oh, for the love of… What are those?" She questions.

Yashima then explains, "they are my gift to you. Enjoy!" The tanuki begin to move towards Mamizou.

Mamizou's mouth begins to twitch as she begins to think to herself, "I get the feeling that these aren't just ordinary tanuki." She begins to move away and starts to enter the premise of Myouren Temple.

"Awww." Says an unsatisfied Yashima. He clicks his fingers, which dispels the illusions. "Why do sisters have to be so mean?" He questions, hinting that his fun had not ended yet. This causes him to sigh. "I suppose I will stay on guard and be alone for now," he says as he then begins to cry a bit. .

End of chapter

Next chapter: Insider Knowledge


	9. Insider Knowledge

Just outside of Myouren Temple, Yashima Hogo, in his "Adult form," is singing "Truths, Ironies, The Secret Lyrics" whilst being on a branch.

"I know that no one knows that we're singing in English. Now it gets a bit faster. Watch your step." After singing this, he then sighs and moves his kasa upwards a little bit and then begins to talk as he begins to make tracks, "I think I will set up some more traps before I head into Myouren Temple again. I was meant to do that before." He then begins to set up his traps in areas near the temple and then jumps off of the branch. Stretching after jumping off of the branch, he talks again, "I think I will go and do some praying," having a reason to go into the premise as he begins to walk into Myouren Temple.

At Myouren Temple.

Yashima is seen entering the temple. "Right, I think I will make a start," he says as he then sets up a trap at the entrance, not wanting to be disturbed. "Don't want people disturbing me, now," he says. He then begins to kneel down, closes his eyes and begins to pray as he begins talking as he does this, "I can only hope Byakuren is safe and sound. You are the one who made this all possible for me. If it wasn't for you, I probably would be dead by now. I never told you my past because it's not something that I like talking about and you… I was just a stranger to you."

Mamizou is just outside where Yashima is. She was just alerted as she thought that she heard something, "I thought I heard someone talking. I bet it's that cheeky tanuki." She then decides to investigate the area and heads towards the direction of the sound.

When she goes to the temple, she reads a sign saying, "あなたのステップを気に！" ("Mind your step!"). She facepalms after reading this. "Oh, for the love of… He must be nearby," she says, thinking that she was right to move into this area in particular. She begins to move yet again.

Yashima gets alerted by something as he moves an ear due to him hearing footsteps from outside . He begins to open an eye and looks in the direction of the entrance whilst still keeping his own position.

Mamizou begins to walk into the temple as he begins to call out Yashima's name, "Yashi…" Just as she is saying this, she suddenly drops down to the floor and falls asleep. She had hit Yashima's trap.

Yashima, after witnessing this, begins to close his eye and starts to smirk and then removes it after a while. He carries on with his business, continuing with his praying as well as talking, "thanks to you, I now have a place that I can call "home". I have people who care about me and treat me like anyone else, even a certain distant one, which I call a "friend". I am grateful to you for taking me to this place and for Mamizou for caring for me all these years. I am a lot happier than I was back then and I how to thank you personally. All I can do to try and repay what you have done is by doing this temple's guardian."

He begins to get up, open his eyes and stop praying. "But that could take years, not that I don't mind. I'm loving it here already. I even give the tanuki, Mamizou, a hard time," he says, saying how he is making Mamizou's life hard, which seems to be intentional, "but hey, what are sisters for?" He then begins to leave the area and walks over Mamizou and the smirks as his personality suddenly changes, thus changing his form to his "Child form".

"You didn't mind your step like the warning said, Sis!" Says Yashima to a sleeping Mamizou, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread!" He begins to laugh hysterically after saying this.

Somewhere in Gensokyo.

Nue being to wake up after falling asleep. "I think I've delayed for long enough," she says as she starts to get up. But she is aware of her own situation and that the time spent sleeping was not enough for her own good. " I've not healed up by much, but it should be able to get to Myouren Temple, now," she says as she starts to walk but then begins to ache in her leg and cringes. "Maybe not," she reacts as she then stops, groaning because of the pain. "Damn, that kasha!" She says, cursing Orin, "I should be able to heal myself better there." She begins to walk again, on her way top Myouren Temple and she continues to talk, delaying her words, "just… have to bare with the pain… until then."

Somewhere else in Gensokyo.

Satori begins to sweat and gives off a weird look. "When I decided to come with you I never had this in mind. Just what are you doing, Orin?" She asks, as Orin seems to be doing something that displeases her. Or rather it was something odd to have caused her to ask.

Orin is in fact piggybacking off of Satori and she answers Satori's question, "don't question me!" She then explains the reason why she is on Satori's back, "I'm still injured a bit from yesterday and I did not get enough rest and neither did you give me any medicine!"

Satori reacts to this answer of Orin and replies with, "and that is your excuse for treating your master in this way? Are you not afraid of me in the sense of myself being fully capable of shooting that lovely, cute face of yours clean off the surface of your body?" Trying to give Orin a fair warning, since Orin seems to be happy with herself and does not seem to care about what she does to others.

"Bu-but…," she stutters but then saying the full word, then begins to act cute towards Satori and carries on, "... I am death and I am your favourite little…"

Satori Interrupts and decides to finish her own sentence off for her, " … Nuisance."

"Aww, you know you like me, really!" Says Orin.

Satori just sighs and then thinks to herself, "I like you better when you are asleep," hinting that Orin is worse when she is awake.

Orin begins to hum "Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye".

Satori then reacts by trying to punch Orin. "And you can shut up right now!" She shouts.

Orin falls off of Satori, as so to dodge the punch. "What's wrong with me humming?" She asks of Satori. "It's just some random rubbish to pass the time," she says, saying that she was just playing any old rubbish.

They both seemed to have arrived at the area. Satori then begins to ask Orin if they are at the right place, "anyhow, is this where you were?"

Examining the area and wanting to see if they both are in the right place, Orin has this to say to Satori, "yes, this is it. This is where I fought Chen."

"I still cannot believe you that both actually fought against one another," says Satori, who then covers an eye with her hand and then tries to mock the situation, "it almost sounds like a joke."

Orin gets alerted by this and says to Satori in a hyped up sense, "she was the one who started it!" She carries on, trying to explain what happened back then, "she thought I killed that Master of hers and lunged right at me."

Satori then thinks that Orin would have said something wrong for Chen to have attacked herself due to what she just said. "Why, oh why, did you even say that you had killed her?" She asks.

Orin looks at Satori in a weird way. "I didn't have a choice, I think," she explains, "I came with my cart and she saw me and gave me an angry look."

Satori starts to giggle a bit as she found this bit of information rather amusing. So she says to her, "it seems that even death cannot handle a situation properly."

Orin is looking sad from what Satori just said. "That's not very nice!" She says,

Satori closes her eyes and goes to command Orin. "Just go and collect your things," she says.

"I'm going," says Orin in an unsatisfied tone. She goes looking for her cart and then spots it. "There's the cart…," she says as she walks around and looks around the area for something else, "...but where are the…," she then manages to find her clothes. Happy to find what she was looking for, she says, "there they are!" She then goes to pick her clothes up and carries them with her. " And there's my cart," she says as she goes to her cart.

Satori begins to run out of patience. Getting a bit annoyed, she quickly shouts at Orin, "will you hurry up, you daft moggie!?"

Orin looks at Satori in confusion and then tilts her head since she heard words that she never thought she would hear from Satori. "I never knew you spoke like that. Aren't you breaking the mould a bit, there?" She questions.

Satori clenches her fist as both her fingers and hand click just as it happens, indicating a little bit of tension with her, and says to Orin, "oh, I will break more than just that, Orin."

"Going!" Responds Orin, trying to hurry up so she can get back to the Palace. But she still needs to collect Nue's corpse. Before doing this however, she goes to get her cart and puts her clothes into it. Now it is time to collect Orin's reward. "Now, where is the corpse?" She wonders.

"Did you not say the imposter was here?" Asks Satori, since she thought that Orin said that Nue was here since she did confirm that Chen was here.

Orin denies ever saying that. "No, but she was here," she explains. She then looks around and gets shocked. "WHERE IS THE CORPSE!?" she screams.

Covering an eye with her hand, Satori then says this in disappointment, "I see that the cat messed up yet again." She takes her hand away from her eye and asks Orin, "did you even fulfil your duty?"

Orin is then seen looking at Satori, genuinely crying and acting cute at the same time. "I just wanted to have another corpse for Hell! Why isn't she here?" She whinges, putting her hands over her eyes as she continues, "I saw her burning to death!"

"And now we do not know where she even is," she Satori, "whoever that person is, she is capable of shapeshifting and I do not know anyone who is capable of doing that," hinting that she knows a little bit about the intruder.

This causes Orin to wonder. "Wait a minute, shapeshifting?" She asks.

Interestingly enough, Satori gets intrigued by this as she asks her, "do you know anything, Orin?" Thinking that she might have a clue.

"I thought I did," says Orin as she then tries to remember something, "Mu-something. Mu-onna?"

"Mu-onna? Please, do not give me that. There is no such thing as a mu-onna in Gensokyo," protests Satori.

Orin begins to think yet again to see if she really does know anything. "Or maybe it was something else," she says.

Satori begins to sigh as she hopes that Orin's next words are more reasonable as she says, "if you say something silly such as himoenma, I am leaving."

"Aw, what's wrong? You're not scared that a little vampire-like youkai is going to drink your blood, are you?" Says Orin. Orin probably was not going to even mention a hinoenma anyway. Satori just assumed she might or something related to that. But this gave Orin an opportunity to tease Satori.

Satori gets a little bit embarrassed by this as her words become uneasy for a little bit, "D-do not be so ridiculous!" She carries on, on the subject of the hino-enma, "and in any case, I would not let one come any closer to me."

Orin begins to smirk as she thinks she might have found Satori's weakness. "Oh? So you are afraid!" She says with glee.

"I will not be feeling as bad as you in just a few minutes!" Satori says to Orin, since Satori had, had enough of her.

Orin opens her eyes wide and sweats a little bit. "Well…," she says as she then closes her eyes a bit and thinks to herself, "aren't I in trouble."

Satori read her mind when she thought this. She covers an eye with a hand and responds, "yes, you certainly are, my pet." Without a moment's hesitation, she begins to grab Orin.

Putting her hands on her head, trying to get Satori off of her since she had her hand on her own head, Orin says this to Satori, "hey, Satori! What are you doing?"

"Teaching you a lesson that you will never forget!" Says Satori as she then pushes her head towards the ground, forcefully.

Orin is then alerted after feeling pain, reacting to it, "ow, that hurts! Why are you doing this?" She wonders. Why is Satori doing this to her own pet? Was she always like this? Orin does not understand why she is doing this. Maybe she pushed her too much.

"Oh, why the long face?" Satori questions. She says more, "I thought your sort liked this type of… pleasure," thinking that Orin would be delighted with this supposedly fair treatment. She then picks her head up and forces it into the ground again.

Orin tries to talk, but ends up being muffled.

Unable to understand Orin, Satori says, "what? I cannot hear you clearly. You are a little…, " she begins to smirk before continuing, "... incoherent".

Orin then manages to get her head off from out of the ground and gasps, wanting to finally breathe before she goes to talk to Satorim " I still need to get that person for you. You wanted me to stop her and I did. But now that she's gone, I need to find her for you again."

Satori picks Orin up. "Then you better…," she says as she then begins to throw Orin, "... get a move on!"

Orin lands on the ground yet again after being thrown by Satori, adding more harm to her already injured body. "Ow…," she says, reacting to the pain. She begins to get up and puts her hand on her face only to notice something. "Oh, great. Now I'm bleeding from my nose like a deredere character," she says.

Satori then talks back to Orin and begins to say something relatively fitting to what she just said, "says the person who would not mind being naked in front of me."

Orin's mouth begins to twitch as she lets off a shocked expression from what Satori just said, who insinuated that she was a lewd character herself.

Satori starts to move as she prompts Orin to come with her. "Come, now. I have somewhere that I have to be," she says.

"What? But I thought…," says a disappointed Orin. She had plans to fetch Nue and kill her as intended, despite her dislike for killing. Anything to please her Master. But Satori supposedly has other plans.

"I told you to get that person, yes. But I want to see Yukari. She is even more knowledgeable than I am, so she should know who that was and where she is," Satori announces.

Orin sighs by this. "Oh, alright," she says, sounding a little bit exhausted and not full of life.

They both leave the area.

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house.

Chen is seen dancing around the room, content as ever.

Yukari sees this as she then begins to wonder about Chen's mood. "Is it my imagination or is Chen actually happier now?" She asks.

Chen, still dancing, says, "I just feel…," as she spins around before saying anything else, "... great!"

Yukari begins to laugh nervously due to this as she then thinks to herself, "yes, she's definitely happy," thinking that she did indeed, look content.

"Oh, leave her, Yukari," says who, wanting Yukari to leave Chen alone for the time being, "if she's happy, she's happy. I am just glad to have her back with us."

Chen moves her hands in the air, waving them about. "It's just so great to be…,"she says as she accidentally fires a bullet, causing her to stop talking for a little bit before carrying on, "... alive…" She opens her eyes wide in astonishment, thus begging the question; "what was that?" Which was asked by Chen.

Yukari facepalms at this slight occurrence as she knows that someone will have to explain to Chen what just happened. Not wanting to tell her herself, she prompts Ran to, saying to her, "Ran, I believe this is all yours." She takes her hand away and continues, "go on, shikigami to master."

Ran then gives Yukari a weird look and says to her, "that sounds oddly vague coming from you." Saying this since just like she is a master of Chen and Chen is her shikigami, Ran is Yukari's shikigami just like Yukari is her master. It just… was not as clear to Ran as it should have been.

Chen tilts her head in wonder, listening to what Yukari just said as her attention is drawn to Ran. "Huh? What is it, Master? Do you know something?" She asks.

Ran sighs at this, not because Chen had just asked her something, just that Yukari wanted Ran to be the one to tell Chen this rather urgent matter. "Why me?" She thinks as she then begins to explain to Chen, "that is your power, Chen. Don't you remember? This is what you used when we fought."

Chen begins to look at her hands. "This is... inside me?" She asks.

"It is the power that was from within me. That is my power that is inside of you, now," explains Ran.

Yukari coughs, in order to try and interrupt Ran. She then intervenes, "that was originally mine, no doubt. That is the reason why I was weakened afterwards. But it all came back after a while."

Ran opens her eyes wide, coming to a sudden realisation as she says, "so THAT is why I felt weak after putting in my energy!"

Yukari Yakumo begins to whistle after hearing what Ran just said. She knew about this but failed to mention it.

"So, this is your energy? Your energy is now my energy?" A wondering Chen asks.

Ran sighs, seemingly tired from having to explain herself further. "Yes. It was the final step to creating you," she says as she then looks at Yukari as she then say something directed to her, "I am guessing the energy is meant to serve as a life force."

"Oh, no. Ketsuyuketsu acts as the lifeforce," explains Yukari, "the power that you gave to Chen is meant to act as energy so she could become a strong youkai. But both too little and too much energy are dangerous."

Ran looking at Yukari in a weird way. "So you've said…," she says as she remembers Yukari saying this once before.

"Too much and too little? What does Yukari mean?" Says the curious Chen.

Yukari begins to laugh nervously as she feels like she has said enough, ergo she does not want to say anymore and wants to leave the rest to Ran. "And I think that's my cue to leave," she implies.

Not wanting Yukari to have her own way, Ran tries to grab Yukari. "Oh, no. You aren't going away this time!" She says in a slightly raised tone as she then grabs her.

Yukari is seen struggling, trying to break free. " Now, now, now, Ran. Take care of your master," she says to Ran.

Ran gives Yukari a mischievous look. "I just see someone escaping from a golden opportunity. You know more than I do on the matter, Yukari, so… use… your… brain… for… me," she says, saying her words slowly as she is trying to keep tight hold of Yukari.

Chen tilts her head from watching this. "Master and Master's master are fighting. What do I do now?" She ponders, scratching her head, "I'm so confused."

Ran releases Yukari and turns her attention to Chen. "Anyway, you just have to learn how to use that power of yours, even though you were capable of using it before," she explains, not adding more.

"Was I?" Says Chen as she then begins to think, "erm…"

Yukari gets suspicious as this. "She does not remember, does she? Or maybe she just cannot use her power," she says, beginning to think. "Aha!" She says as she seems to know the reason as to why that is, "no wonder. It is because of the earring that I put on her."

"… And you were telling me that she had to control that power? How can she if the earring is keeping it all in?" Argues Ran.

But Yukari tries to explain to Ran that she is missing the point. "Relax. You saw her fire a bullet, did you not?" She says as she then explains what Ran had overlooked, "she can still use that power. It is just... limited."

Ran rolls her eyes as she says "NOW you tell me…" to Yukari while she does this.

Chen starts to look sad at this. She was beginning to think that she slowly becoming a part of the house and that she was not just some servant. She thinks to herself. "so that is what that is on my ear. It is just an earring… An earring that made me weaker. But why? Why, why, why, why, why?" She then asks Ran, "Ran… Why did you do this to me?"

Ran's own words become uneasy as she tries to find words to use. "I, err... The thing is, Chen…," she says, thinking carefully about her words, "I didn't know." She carries on, "Yukari said I gave you too much of my power and that caused you to become unstable." She then points to her tails to try and prove something, "you see this? I used to have nine tails. I have eight now because of you."

This is when Chen thinks that her reality begins to break as she thinks that what she thought just came as a lie. She slowly starts to cry as she has this to say, "but I thought you cared about me. I thought I wasn't chained to a ball!"

"And this is why I did not say too much," thinks Yukari.

Ran then explains that she did not have a choice. "It was for your own good, Chen. But if you learn to control your power, then…," she says as she then looks at Yukari before carrying on, "... I'm sure Yukari will take it off." She looks at Chen, explaining why she cannot do it, "I wish I could, but only Yukari can take it off."

Chen rubs her eyes, trying to rid herself of the tears as she says, "I get it. I get it! So you were trying to protect me from myself. So, you really do care about me," acknowledging what Ran said.

Yukari sighs in relief as she thinks to herself on the matter, "that went swimmingly."

Just then, someone knocks on the door and then two people enter via the unlocked door.

"Hello!" Says both Satori and Orin, who just happen to be in the area.

"Would you shut up, Orin!?" She says to Orin in an annoyed sense.

Chen gets alerted by Orin as she then yells out, "it's the kasha!"

"What?" Asks Ran, "one, who are you two and two…," looking at Chen before continuing and wonders, "... do you know her?" She then looks at Satori. "A three-eyed…? So she was the one you mentioned," she says, coming to a realisation.

"Hello there, Chen. It has been a while, has it not? How are things?" Says Satori to Chen.

Chen quickly moves over to Orin and jumps on her in delight. "ORIN!" She shouts as begins to rub her head against Orin.

Orin gets confused at this rather sudden circumstance as she asks her, "what has gotten into you all of a sudden?!

Yukari begins dreading what Orin just said as she thinks to herself, "... I hope it never comes to that, in a rather awkward fashion," being hopeful.

Satori looking at Yukari in a weird way, as she had read her dirty mind.

Yukari begins to whisper as so to not let Satori hear her as she should not think to herself, "I forgot to whisper, silly me."

Chen begins to explain the situation; why she attacked Orin at that time and says how sorry she is, "I can't say how sorry I am to attack you then, Orin! I just thought you killed my master but Master is still alive. I thought she died and you were going to take her away from me. I thought my life really was ruined when I was just beginning to understand who I was and what my purpose was."

Orin gives off an awkward look. "And here's me thanking you kindly," she says as she bites her lip. "I am just glad that we are both sound, Chen," feeling glad that she is not mad at her. She looks at Chen and tries to wriggle her arms free, since Chen had her arms around her. "You can stop rubbing against me, Chen!" I'm still hurt from our battle," she says, explaining that she is only causing Orin to ache.

Chen apologises, "oh, I'm sorry!" In a rather joyous tone as she then closes her eyes, smiles and moves away from Orin.

Satori turns her attention onto Yukari as she has something meaningful to her ask, "by the way, Yukari. Do you know of any shapeshifters?"

"Shapeshifters?" Yukari asks.

"Why, yes. Those types of people who can copy the appearance of anyone," explains Satori.

"You are telling me things that I already knew," says Yukari, hinting that this was something that she has already known about. She explains to Satori something that she remembers on the subject, "there was one that came to mind and that was a rather tricky tanuki named Mamizou."

"Mamizou?" A puzzled Satori asks.

So then Yukari explains to Satori what she meant. Mamizou, the one youkai that is not from here, "she is a youkai not from Gensokyo. She was the one who penetrated my barrier."

"So you are saying that, that imposter of Ran's was Mamizou?" Questions Satori.

Ran overhears them both talking. "What? What are you saying?" She asks.

Yukari panics by this. This is not the type of conversation that she wanted her vixen to hear. Especially if it gets her worked up. "Nothing, er, Ran. Why don't you go outside with Chen for a bit?" She asks, trying to get Ran away so she cannot listen to their conversation.

Ran just sighs. "Fine. Come on, Chen," she says.

Orin decides to come along, "I will come too," she says, giving off a mischievous look.

Ran, Chen and Orin all leave.

Meanwhile, just outside the premises of Myouren Temple.

Yashima, in his "Adult form," is asleep on a branch and dreaming.

Yashima's dream

"What is your name?" asks a mysterious person, who waits in anticipation.

"I don't have one," replies Yashima.

"You stupid, useless youkai! Get out of my sight!" says disgusted person.

Another person says, "Why were you even born anyway? You don't fit in with any of us."

The third mysterious person says, "yeah, you need to die."

The only one that needs to die is you!" Says Yashima.

Yashima wakes up and yells from his nightmare, "NOOO!" He begins to pant and is seen sweating with a beating heart. "It was just a dream," he says, continuing to pant and needing to calm down as his heart slowly starts to beat more slowly as he tries to calm himself down, "just a dream."

Shou is seen arriving in the area. "Ah, Yashima. Sleeping on the job again?" You know that'll get you in trouble," trying to explain that he should not be asleep on the job otherwise Nazrin will scold him… And possibly lecture him.

"Yes, sorry about that. I was just a little bit tired," Yashima explains, as he is aware that he left the Temple unprotected. He continues, "here, I will set the traps up now," as he then puts up traps in the area.

Shou sighs. "Just try to not doze off too often, OK? You know what Nazrin's like," she says to Yashima just before leaving.

"Believe me, I know all too well what that killjoy is like…," says Yashima as he looks at Shou while she leaves.

End of chapter

Next chapter: Undefined Fantastic Journey!


	10. Undefined Fantastic Journey!

At the Yakumo house, Orin and Ran have just left the building, leaving Satori and Yukari still in the area as Yukari has information to give Satori.

"Thank you for that," says Satori, who appreciates the fact that Yukari wanted Ran out of the area, "what we are going to say is not meant for her ears. Especially since I know that she is not the imposter."

However it seems like the reason why Yukari wanted Ran out of the way is because she herself, does not want Ran to listen to their conversation. But it works in Satori's favour.

"Oh?" Questions Yukari as she begins to smirk. She continues, "despite my knowing, what gave it away for you?"

"The imposter did not do a good job at impersonating her. One of Ran's tails was cut off during her battle and that imposter failed to realise that she was missing a tail," says Satori, saying that she identified the imposter and explaining to Yukari how exactly she knew.

This is when Yukari begins to assume something as what Satori just said got her thinking. "I see. So you were there," she says, "no wonder you knew where we lived." She then opens her fan and puts it in front of her face. "You followed us here," she remarks.

Satori puts both of her hands over her eyes, acting like she just got embarrassed when in fact she did not. It was more along the lines of "I cannot believe what you just said". She tries to convince Yukari that, that was not her intention at all and says, "oh, please. Stop that, now." She takes her hands away and carries on, "I would never do that."

"Oh, I've heard all about you. You are someone that likes to have pets," she hints, which is obvious to know why she would know at least a little bit about Satori. "And what was your business here?" She asks her as she carries on, thinking she might know her reason for being here, "it is quite, quite simple, really. You were after either Ran or Chen."

Satori's mouth begins to twitch. "What are you implying?" She asks her as she then coughs, "I already have enough pets as it is. Why would I need anymore? I am not an animal rescue service."

Yukari seems to have picked up on something as she feels like she might have pushed a button. "Oh, dear," she says as she closes her fan and then smirks before continuing, hinting something, "it seems the embarrassment has caused you to tell lies."

Satori begins to blush as she begins to stutter for a bit, "B-b-b-but! Could you please shut up with that!?"

Yukari begins to laugh at this. It seems like she did indeed hit something. And so she says to Satori, "oh, dear! Anymore of this truth and that darling kasha of yours will have another corpse. Namely yours," implying to her that the truth kills.

"That will not the be the only corpse that she will be taking with her," thinks Satori, not liking the fact that Yukari is making light of her.

"You asked me something before. About this shapeshifter," says Yukari in a more serious manner.

"Yes, I did," replies Satori, "Ran's imposter was just a shapeshifter. You said that Mamizou was one. But was it really her?"

"No, it was not," says Yukari, confirming that is was never Mamizou. Yukari mentioned Mamizou but never referred to the imposter as her.

Satori is seen getting confused at this. Who could it be? Wanting to know the answer, she asks her, "then who was it? I do not know of any shapeshifters."

"It was a youkai called Nue Houjuu," answers Yukari.

Satori then questions Yukari yet again, "Nue Houjuu?"

Yukari then begins to explain that there are two shapeshifters: Nue and Mamizou, "yes. Both her and Mamizou are shapeshifters and I have a hunch that Nue was the reason why Mamizou was able to get through my barrier," she assumes since apparently she was notified of a certain passing of her barrier, which was when Mamizou entered Gensokyo. She continues, "this shapeshifter that you speak of was in fact Nue Houjuu."

Satori begins to think about this as she also remembers what happened in the past and so she says, "Nue Houjuu… But Orin said she killed her. But when we went to the area in which she killed her, we could not find a trace of her. The worst case scenario was that she found her way to this place again."

"Hmm… You must have been relieved to realise that she wasn't," says Yukari respectively.

Meanwhile, outside of the Yakumo house.

Chen begins looking at the wheelbarrow that Orin brought with her. " I didn't know you had a wheelbarrow, Orin," she says as she then begins to ask her, "Can I ride it?" She begins to jump in excitement, "can I, can I?"

Orin begins to smirk as she gives off a sinister look and says, "sure. Knock yourself dead."

Ran gives Orin a weird look, unsure as to what her intentions are. "You better not be playing some sick game, there, kasha," she says, hoping that she is not playing some twisted game since she did not like where this was going.

"Call me "Orin"," says Orin, wanting her to call her by her name and nothing else.

Chen gets into the wheelbarrow after Orin's say so. "It's a nice fit," she says, beginning to smile as she begins to wonder, "but why do you take this around with you?"

Ran begins to sweat due to this question. "Please don't answer that," thinks a hopeful Ran.

"I think you're too young to know that," assumes Chen, trying to act considerate so she has an excuse not to explain herself.

"Thank Suwako for that…," thinks a relieved Ran.

Chen then asks her followed by an assumption, "but why? I bet it's to do with what you do in your spare time."

"I'm a kasha. I collect corpses," answers Orin.

Ran begins to get annoyed as Orin says the one thing that she was dreading and thinks, "you will be a dead cat in a minute, you fool!"

Chen begins to get nervous, the fur on her tails straightening. "you co-collect corpses? So this isn't just a tool for... What was it? Gardening?" She asks her, in a rather nervous manner.

Not caring about the consequences of her own actions, not thinking about becoming hesitant she goes to answer another of Chen's questions, "no. Not really, Chen. I use it to take corpses and send them down to the Hell of Blazing Fires. It really is a lovely hobby of mine."

Ran becomes alerted by this.""Lovely hobby"? You say some of the most disgusting things," the displeased Ran thinks.

"But I'm not dead yet!" Protests Chen, thinking that Orin came to take her away. She decides to look cute to try and stop Orin and says, "please don't take me away."

"Hmm…," says Orin, thinking as she then puts on a mischievous look towards Chen. "Then why don't you take a look at this lovely Wanyūdō of mine?" She asks Chen, "it's a type of wheel."

Chen, after becoming nervous from Orin's earlier statement, becomes curious and begins to feel a little bit calmer, forgetting that earlier comment and asks Orin, "Wanyūdō? A type of wheel? What type of wheel?"

"It's a wheel that sucks the soul of anyone who sees it," explains Orin. She continues, "so, Chen…," she says as she then begins to look scary as she then continues, "... do you want to see it?"

Chen, upon hearing this, quickly gets out of the cart, scared. "AHH! No, No, No! I don't want to die!" She yells.

Ran becomes both angry and annoyed by this little stunt of Orin's. "Are you trying to scare my Shikigami half to death, you damn cat!?" She says.

Back in the Yakumo house.

Satori finishes off the tea that Yukari had given her. "Thank you for the tea," thanks Satori as she then began hearing something from outside the building, saying, "and I heard a fuss outside. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, it must be one of those typical days that occurs here," replies Yukari, hinting that this type of episode often happens at the house and she continues with, "it must have gotten a bit more lively with that kasha of yours." A kasha making it more lively? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Satori begins to get back on topic, the topic of "Nue," the person who was to beRan from earlier, "hmm… Anyway, Yukari, this "Nue"... Do you have any idea as to where she would be now?"

Yukari makes a fist and putting it against her chin as support as she begins, putting her elbow on the table as so to rest her face as she then begins to answer Satori's question, "hmm… If memory serves, she used to live at Myouren Temple."

Satori looks a little bit surprised at this surprised for some reason as she then says, "you have got to be joking. What would she be doing there?" Her reason for asking is a bit strange, especially considering she did not know who Nue was.

"Well, it's not like I am her keeper as such," remarks Yukari.

Yukari's response causes Satori to become quiet for a moment, wanting a better comment from Yukari as the not only did the comment not answer her comment with the a response that she wanted, but it seemed a bit rude in general.

Yukari then says more to Satori, "she must have had her reasons for living there. Anyhow, Myouren Temple is probably your best bet if you want to find her," she says. So it seems like even Yukari is not 100% sure as to where she is, despite her supposed remembrance.

Satori slowly begins to understand where Yukari is coming from as she is finally getting somewhere with her, "I see now. So you say that if we go to Myouren Temple, we will find our answers?" She asks.

Yukari begins to wink at Satori as she then puts a smile on her face before replying back, "but I never said it was definite. It is only your best bet."

"Why not send Ran over there?" Questions Ran, which is odd coming from her since she was the one who opted Orin to follow Nue to begin with.

"Oh, "why" indeed," says Yukari, taking note of Yukari's comment as she explains why she does not want Ran to do it, "I just do not want to bother with her. She has enough on her plate." She then hears something come from outside. "Oh, dear," she says, "what are they doing this time?"

Outside the house.

Orin is in pain of a sudden. "Ow! Get off of me, you canine!" She says.

Ran is seen grabbing hold of Orin by an ear as something had happened. She talks to Orin in such exasperation, "this is what you get for tormenting Chen! What, you think that just because you're here you can do whatever you please? Think again!"

Orin comes up with such a cute response, "I'm a pretty girl just for nothing, you know. I have my own characteristics."

Satori, overhearing the commotion from within the building, then begins to poke her head out of the window. "Could you all please…," she says as she then begins to shout, "... SHUT UP!?"

This causes both Ran and Orin to become lost for words. Ran then begins to Sweat as she then thinks to herself, "what is with that bossy thing?"

Satori smiles. "Good," she says as she sees that they are beginning to understand her intentions. She then gives Ran permission over something as she says to her, "now, if the worst comes to the worst yet again, do me a favour and kill Orin for me, Ran."

Ran begins to smirk as she kindly agrees, "with pleasure!"

Orin becomes ambivalent in both anger and panic as this swift decision. "S-Satori. SATORI! I will make sure you pay for this!" She yells, making sure Satori can hear her/

Back inside the house, Satori announces that it is about time she makes her leave. "I think it is time both Rin and I were on our way," she says.

"Rin?" Says a slightly confused Yukari as she then makes a quick realisation, "oh, that's the name of the kasha."

"Well… She prefers it if people called her "Orin"," explains Satori.

Yukari responds with, "I see," and then begins to drink her sake.

"I think it is about time Orin and I leave," Satori says, repeating herself as she then begins to bow to Yukari, "it was a pleasure spending time with you."

Yukari waves her hand as a way of bidding farewell. "No worries. You only came for a little bit of information. Talk about abuse…," she comments.

Satori laughs for a bit because of this and then turns towards the doorway and goes outside. She begins to try and get Orin's attention and says, "Orin, we are leaving."

"What? Already?" Questions Orin.

"Yes! And now rather than later," she imposes, "and bring your cart with you."

Orin just shrugs, since she takes her cart wherever she goes anyway. "I would have done that anyway. But I really wanted to stay a little longer," she says, wanting to go against Satori's idea of leaving.

"Orin, do not try my patience," warns Satori.

"Aww," says a fairly unamused Orin, who then sighs, "Oh well. I suppose this is bye, then, Chen. And bye, fox lady. "

Ran gets a bit irritated at Orin's lack for addressing her properly. ""Bye, fox lady." You know that my name is Ran!" She says.

Orin closes and eye and sticking her tongue out. "Oh? Must have been the slip of the tongue," she says as she must have just been playing with her… or just a genuine accident.

A Kitsunebi appears from Ran's hand as she gives her a fair warning, "you will catch fire by the slip of my hand if you are not careful, my lady!"

Satori is starting to lose her patience. "Will you please come with me now, Orin?" She asks her.

Satol=ri hears this and decides to do as she is told. "Coming! Bye!" She says.

Chen then says her farewells to Orin, "bye, scary cat lady!"

Orin's mouth begins to twitch due to this remark as she thinks to herself, "what goes around, comes around, I suppose."

Orin and Satori both leave.

The Kitsunebi that Ran had lit up then get extinguished. She then says out loud, "Right, I think I will enter the house. Come on, Chen," getting Chen's attention.

Chen closes her eyes and smiling and just says, "OK!"

Meanwhile, at the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Utsuho is seen walking around the Palace, wanting to find out if anyone is in the Palace. " Hello? Is anyone here?" She asks, going from room to room. She walks into a room and and repeats herself, "Hello? Satori? Hmm, no one's here," she assumes.

She then leaves the room and then enters Orin's room. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!" She says, trying to provoke a response. Utsuho then begins to become saddened since she has not had any answers whatsoever, thus saying, "no one's here. They left me behind. Well, everyone except… Koishi. Why did Satori leave me with her? Or maybe it was because it's just my job to stay here and regulate the heat of that God forsaken place."

She begins to walk back into the underground and then stops and looks at a door, which was supposedly where Koishi is. "This is where Koishi is. Satori told me never to walk into here. In fact, we all aren't allowed in here," says Utsuho, who wonders about Koishi, "oh, Koishi… What happened to you?"

She begins to open the door and then gets a shock. "Eek!" She says as she reacts to it as her hand then begins to quiver. "What was that? I just got an electric shock from the door handle!" Says the surprised Utsuho. "Satori must have done something to the door," she says, believing Satori to be the reason for it, "figures she might have. She must really not want anyone to go into this room." She then begins to go underground and thinks to herself, "where did Koishi's sanity go? It all happened so suddenly."

_________________  
Utsuho's memory  
\---------------

"Koishi, what are you doing?" Questions Satori, who is wanting to know what her own sister is trying to do.

Koishi responds to her, "ridding myself of this life!" She then fires a bullet at Satori and continues, "and you!"

"Koishi, stop! You're not yourself," says Utsuho, not wanting Koishi to carry one her misdemeanour.

Koishi then brings her attention to Utsuho and says to her, "who're you to tell who I am, you stupid bird!? Put yourself in my shoes… WILL YOU KNOW ME THEN!?"

"Koishi, I live with you. Of course…," she says, basically explaining that her living with Koishi means that she at least has some understanding about her.

But Koishi interrupts Utsuho before she could finish, noticing something that, to her, was said wrong. "No, you don't! You live underground, in the Hell of Blazing Fires. My life has been problematic to me and all because of my powers! And you know what? Now's the time I correct that," she explains.

Satori then shouts at Koishi, trying to prompt her to stop, "sister, stop it right now!"

Koishi puts her hands over her third eye and begins to procedure as she ignores Satori's wishes. "Bye, bye, painful memories" she says as she begins to close her eye.

"Sister, stop it now! Utsuho, go and stop her," says Satori

"But it's too late, sis. Far too…," says Koishi as her eye closes and she carries on, shouting, "... LLLAATTTEEEE!" She begins to put her hands and her head and screams due to the side effect that closing her eye had caused, "AAAHHHHHHH!"

Satori opens her eyes wide as she is too late to stop Koishi. "Oh, no. Koishi, just what have you done? Utsuho, do something!" She commands, wanting her to do something about Koishi.

Utsuho begins to go to Koishi and grab her but then tries to think about what to do.

Koishi stops screaming and begins to pant, her agony coming to a halt.

"Koishi? Are you still with us? Speak to me," responds a concerned Satori.

Koishi begins to laugh. "Get away from me, dumb bird!" She says to Utsuho.

"Huh?" Utsuho questions as she suddenly gets blasted in the face by Koishi's bullet and then falls to the floor.

Satori then shouts, "Utsuho, no!"

Koishi looksat Utsuho as she makes a comment about her, "that takes care of one nuisance." She then begins to look at Satori. "Now, time to feast, sister!" She says as she begins to charge at Satori.

Satori dodges Koishi and grabs her. "Koishi, stop it right now! You really are not yourself, are you?" She says, thinking that Koishi has changed somehow.

It was then that Koishi made a terrifying response, "why should you care? I won't rest until every living despicable pest dies right in front of my eyes! And you are one of them!"

Satori forces Koishi to the floor with her hand. "Now, look here, you! I will not tolerate anymore of this. You want to kill me? What for, exactly?" She asks, wanting to know why her sister would possibly want to kill her.

Koishi begins to laugh impishly as her words become delayed, "eve… ry… thing." She quickly gets up off the floor and begins to kick Satori repeatedly and Satori manages to dodge all of them. "You are one that did not acknowledge me. You are one that did not help me when everyone was afraid of me. You are one who is my sister and COULD NOT EVEN DEFEND ME!" She says, explaining to Satori did nothing for her sister, not even defend her. What was Koishi to her? She then fires a bullet in Satori's face, which hits her and forces her flying to the door. "You are one that shares my blood. Why couldn't you even try to do anything? " She questions.

Satori begins to get up as she begins to explain the reasons for not acting, "I did not know at first, Koishi. But when I found out what you were going through, I tried my damnedest to…"

Koishi interrupts and shouts, attempting to see through Satori, "LIAR! All you care about is your damn pets like Orin and Utsuho. Why are they much more important than me? Why!? They are bare necessities to you and what am I to you? NOTHING! I am at the bottom of the barrel!" She the breathes out suddenly and continues, "but now, I think it's time to end it. Get ready, "sister". She then begins to charge towards Satori.

_______________  
End of memory  
\-------------

"And due to all of that, Satori had her detained. That was all I could remember until I lost consciousness. I wish I knew what had gotten into her. She used to be so cheerful and full of life. But it all changed on that day," says Utsuho after remembering the dreadful past involving Koishi, the one person that felt hated and thought that Satori never saw her as a sister.

Utsuho then thinks to herself, "but she is safe now and Satori wants to keep it that way. She thinks she is too dangerous to be about. Maybe her mentality will be restored again… someday." She then begins to go deeper underground, towards the Hell of Blazing Fires.

Meanwhile, Orin and Satori enter the palace.

"Well, isn't it nice to be here again?" Says Orin, seemingly relieved to be back at the Palace.

Satori looks at Orin in a weird way. "No thanks to your piggybacking. What was it this time? Stiff legs?" She asks her, wanting to know what the excuse was this time.

Orin rolls her eyes. "No. More like "a hurting leg"," she says, hinting that her leg still has not recovered properly since her battle. Well, she was moving about a lot, so no surprise there.

Satori facepalms. "Are you serious…?" She asks, taking her hand away, "look, if you want I can give you something for your leg. You can use it for when you make your way to Myouren Temple."

Orin sigh, Sighing at the fact that she still has to go there in order to fulfill that errand of Satori's. "Do I still have to go there?" She asks her.

Satori then begins to question Orin since her not wanting to go to Myouren came as a bit of a shock, "what was that? You do not want to bring another corpse with you? Did all of your excitement die at some point?"

Orin begins to touch her digit fingers repeatedly as something seems to bother her, "don't get me wrong, I want to, but…"

"Oh, that is right. I forgot that you were stopped from going to that place. You were rejected by someone," says Satori ever so lightly after realising Orin's reason for not wanting to go there and realising her own concerns.

"Oh, rub it in, why don't you!" She says after being reminded about the past by Satori.

Utsuho goes into the room with both Orin and Satori in it after she was going back underground. "Huh? Orin is off somewhere?" She asks.

"Why, yes, Utsuho," answers Satori, "Orin is going to Myouren Temple all on her lonesome. Now, be a dear and bring us both a nice, juicy corpse. "

Orin sighs again. "Well, if I must…," she says as she begins to leave with her cart as she asks Satori, "but why can't Okuu come with me?"

Satori covers an eye with her hand as she responds to her,"never you mind the details. I just want you to be on your way," wanting Orin to just leave as quickly as possible.

"Fine. But when I get back, I will make sure you pay for what you did before," she says, remembering that foul comment that Satori made earlier. Or maybe it was the time when Satori was treating her like a playful object and was slamming her face to the ground. She gives off a mischievous smile as she then says, "yes, a nice and painful experience."

Orin leaves.

"Somehow I think that she will forget all about that by that time," Satori says, believing that she has nothing to worry about.

"But can't I just go with her? It would be a lot quicker," says Utsuho, who apparently wanted to go with Orin. And with her being a hell raven, that is a good enough reason for her comment.

"Not when she is dragging that cart of hers, you cannot," Satori explains, "and besides, I have someone else in mind."

Utsuho becomes curious at Satori's question. "Who?" She asks. Who could Satori possibly mean?

End of chapter

Next chapter: Crystallised Silver of Good Cheer


	11. Crystallised Silver of Good Cheer

Somewhere in Gensokyo, Orin is making her way towards Myouren Temple after leaving the Palace of the Earth Spirits as she is walking along a path with her cart, which Satori demanded since she still had to fulfil her job.

"If I remember rightly, this is the way to Myouren Temple," says Orin, who tries to remember the way to Myouren Temple as she thinks that she is following the right path. But all of sudden something is bothering her. "But what's this?" She asks herself as she begins to feel cold. She begins to stop and rub her arms. Despite the fact that she is a hell cat, she can still feel the cold, some how. "It's not night or Winter yet. Why is it so cold?" She pondered.

Just then, Orin notices shards of ice heading towards her. In response, she quickly rushes to safety.

"You dodged that nicely. Well done you," says an unfamiliar voice, who supposedly came from the attacker.

Orin, in her hiding place, hears this and questions, "who's there?"

The person responds to Orin, "I am the guard of this area, Letty Whiterock." The person, who appears to be revealed as "Letty," then comments about Orin and identifies her, "and judging by that disgusting item of yours, I take it that you are a kasha."

Orin begins to smirk due to this answer. "Why does that matter to you?" She says, unsure as to why she would be bothered by Orin's appearance, "not like I care what a woman like you is, anyway."

Letty then moves her hands to the front of herself. "That goes without saying, I will not allow you to pass," she explains.

Orin narrows her eyes as she then responds to Letty, "try me." The game is on! Orin gets out from her hiding place and begins to fire Kechibi at Letty. Letty then fires shards of ice at the Kechibi and then moves to a different area quickly.

"You won't make this easy for me," says Letty as Orin is apparently becoming quite difficult for her, not like it is something that she cannot manage. She continues, "fine, then. I will just have to make this place… colder," she says, implying that she has to make it harder for Orin. She conjures a blizzard in the area, which goes into Orin's direction. "May this be your tomb, kasha," says an unrelenting Letty.

In her defence, Orin begins to use her Shiranui Wall to try and remove the blizzard.

"You think that fire wall of yours will stop this?" Asks Letty, as she seems to believe that Orin thinks that she is safe from her attack, "I suppose you all think that fire always beats ice." Letty then creates four ice lances and throws them at Orin. "Let's see if that gets rid of your sceptical mind," she says.

The Shiranui Wall of Orin's suddenly gets extinguished due to the pressure of the lances and the blizzard. Orin quickly dodges, just in time. "I was not expecting this," Orin says as she is sort of surprised by this. She was hoping that her attack, or shield, was enough to stop Letty. She tries something else and so Hitodama appear in her hands. "I suppose I will have to use my Hitodama," says a more serious Orin as she throws eight of them at Letty Whiterock and then just as Letty goes to use some more of her abilities, Orin quickly changes into cat form as she escapes from her clothing and runs up to Letty. Just as she gets just beneath her, she jumps up behind her, changes back and grabs her.

Orin now has Letty in her clutches as she as she wrapped both her legs and arms around her. Letty then struggles to break free from Orin. "Get off of me, you rancid thing!" She demands.

"Now, now, there," says Orin as she puts a hand in front of Letty's face and the a Kechibi appears on it. It was then that she gave Letty a choice, "either you let me pass right now, or you can just get your face burned."

"Disgusting words from an Underworld cat," retorts Orin, showing her dislike for the choice or words that Orin had said. She then produces another ice lance in a hand as she then says, "but let's see who's quicker," wanting to see who will be the one to get injured first.

Orin begins to smirk. "I have my hand right in front of you and yours is nowhere near my own face. I will have you burnt before my face gets impaled," she says, hinting that she will not even be able to use her lance on Orin at all.

Letty then destroys the lance as she thinks that that there is no longer any point to it anymore. She then begins to think of something else to do as she then says, "then let's try a different approach." It was at that this moment that she then starts to shout, "now, Cirno!"

Cirno then comes in speeding in and punches Orin, to which she then uses ice herself on Orin, which end up hitting her since she did not have any time to dodge. "That's her down!" She says in a pleasing manner as she then holds Orin tightly.

"Good, Cirno. Hold her nice and tight," Letty says as she does not want Orin to break free from Cirno's grasp. Her right hand turns into ice, which extends a little bit. "This is where it ends for you, kasha. Say my regards to Yamaxanadu," she says as she prepares to kill Orin.

Orin then closes her eyes and thinks to herself as she acknowledges her own fate as she begins to see this as her end "so, this is where my life ends. Hmm, I suppose I had a nice life. Meeting Okuu, meeting Satori. Life won't be the same for her without me. She will be sad to let a pet like me die, but in a way she will be glad that a nuisance has left her."

Letty's voice then begins to echo as she then says her last final word, or words, to Orin, "die!" It was then that she began to strike Orin's chest. But just as she is doing that, bullets come rushing to Letty, hitting her face and forcing her to pull back. Someone then comes in and kicks Cirno, who loses her grip and falls rapidly to the ground.

Letty gets alerted at this rather unfortunate intervention. "What? Who the hell are you!?" She asks, as she demands to know the name of the person who stopped her from killing Orin.

Orin is surprised after seeing the person who just appeared. "Koishi? Is that you?" She asks the person, since the person seems familiar to her.

"Long time, no see, Orin," says a winking… Koishi, since it apparently was her that appeared. "How are you doing?" She asks Orin.

Orin has questions to ask Koishi as she has not seen her in ages… years even, "Satori actually let you out? Does that mean that you're not insane anymore?"

Koishi then begins to think about this as she is unsure herself. She responds to Orin's questions, "I'm not quite sure myself. I suppose I must be OK. Satori definitely said something."

________________  
Koishi's memory  
\--------------

"Well, I think she is ready to go," says Satori, who brought a silent Koishi with her.

Utsuho then looks at Koishi as she then becomes shocked. Shocked at the fact that Satori had brought her out. "So this is who you mean?" She says as she then realised who that certain person to whom Satori was referring to actually was. But this has her wondering, "but Satori, are you sure this is alright?"

"It is fine. She has been in there for several years and her mentality since then must have settled down," says Satori as tries to remove Utsuho's concerns.

But Utsuho still has her concerns about whether Koishi should have been let out at all. "But are you sure she can be trusted? She will only turn on us again," she says.

"Utsuho…" Says Satori as she closes her eyes. She continues, telling Utsuho about her decision, "this is why I am sending her to Myouren Temple. You see, I want to be able to trust her again. She will join up with Orin on her journey to Myouren Temple. From there, it will all be her choice."

"I hope your own words do not come to bite you, Satori," responds a hopeful Utsuho.

_______________  
End of Memory  
\-------------

After remembering that moment that occurred after Orin left, she then begins to look sad. "I am only here on a whim. But this is my chance to prove to Satori… To prove that I am not like before," she says as she implies that this her chance to prove to Satori that she is not the same as she was years ago.

Orin looks at Koishi and thinks to herself in concern, "I hope Satori's decision was OK."

Cirno, after being attacked by Koishi, recovers and then goes back into the sky. "And who are you?" Asks a rather displeased and annoyed Cirno, "you just come in uninvited when we were just about to kill ourselves a cat?"

Koishi closes an eye and begins smiling. "And who said two-on-one was fair? Two-on-two is quite fair," she says, protesting over the fact that Orin was against two people.

Cirno then examines Koishi, trying to find out what type of person appeared. "Ha! So you are a satori, are you?" She says realising the identity of Koishi. "But your third eye is closed. I doubt you are as strong as you were before. You can't even read minds anymore!" She mocks as she then begins to laugh.

Koishi closes an eye after this comment of Cirno's. "Please, spare me," she says as she does not want to hear anymore. She then begins to smile, keeping her eye closed. "If I read your mind, it would haunt me for years, "retorts Koishi.

A shocked Cirno then drops her jaw by this comment of Koishi's as she just got insulted.

"Whoever you are, you need to leave right now. We only have business with the kasha," says Letty, implying that Koushi is safe from harm's way… but only if she leaves. "But if you want to get in our way also, then…," she says as three rows of ice start to appear in front of her as she begins to say something in an echoing voice, "... Cold Sign "Lingering Cold"." She begins to fire them at Koishi.

Koishi begins to dodge all of the ice that Letty fired and goes towards Cirno. Before Cirno could even react, Koishi kicks her with force, that sends her falling down to the ground and she fires a few bullets at Cirno. Cirno then becomes unconscious.

Letty then makes a shrewd comment about Cirno, "hmm… Well, I didn't expect her to be of much use to me anyway." She then looks at Orin, noticing her naked self as she makes a comment about her appearance, "and what is with that cat of yours? Aren't starting to freeze, are we?"

Orin takes note of this as she then says, "now that you mention it…," to which then she then goes to pick up her clothes and quickly changes as she then goes back into the sky to finish her comment, "now that you mention it, I was getting a little bit cold. But anyway, can you please let us pass?" She asks.

"Why do you insist on going through here? What business do you even have?" She asks as she wonders about Orin's persistence.

"Look, I am only on my way to Myouren Temple. I did not come here to fight you," responds Orin.

Letty widens her eyes due to Orin's answer. "Myouren Temple?" She says as she then closes her eyes a bit, It was then she made a sudden decision, "I see. That is none of my business at all. Fine then, you have convinced me. You may pass," she says after realising why Orin wanted to pass.

Shocking as her response was, this surprised both Orin and Koishi as she shout out, "SERIOUSLY!?"

Letty then begins to tell both Koishi and Orin her position, " I am not here to protect Myouren Temple, I am only here to protect a different area. Naturally, I should not let anyone get passed me, no matter where they want to go. I am like the Gozu and Mezu of this place. Both Cirno and I are."

She then prompts Orin to leave now whilst she has a change to, "so go now, before I change my mind and actually do my job properly this time. I intended to kill you before, kasha, and now you have a chance to escape. But stay here and I really will try once more, to kill you. Don't think of this as consideration, think of it as torture. Torture that is irony to which death actually did escape," she says, mocking Orin.

"Why, you little…!" Says an angered Orin as a bullet appears on her hand.

Koishi then grabs onto Orin's hand and sways her head from side to side, wanting to prevent her from retaliating to Letty's provocation as she prompts her, "let's just leave, Orin."

"Get off of me!" She says to Koishi, making her hand forcefully and trying to release herself as she continues, "that witch is really asking to die!"

Koishi then says to Orin that there is no sense in making matters worse to what they already are as they have a chance to escape, "Orin, no! Let's not make matters worse and take this opportunity to escape."

"The clock is ticking. What will you do?" Asks a watchful and patient Letty. She reminds to two of them yet again, "stay here and die or move along and live? The choice is yours."

"Come on!" Shouts Koishi as she quickly grabs Orin's hand and her cart and begins to leave.

Orin then screams in a cat-like manner after being dragged by Koishi, "nya!"

Cirno then recovers after falling unconscious as she then notices the two of them leave. "Hey! We aren't done with you yet!" She yells out as she begins to produce a lot of ice shards and then uses Frost Sign "Frost Columns" at Orin and Koishi.

Taking herself from Koishi's grip and beginning to look behind her, Orin begins to feel like they were tricked as she then says, "it seems like she told a lie, Koishi." She then begins to produce bullets, Hitodama and Kechibi, getting ready to fire and then she notices the ice suddenly disappearing. "Huh? What happened?" The confused Orin asks.

"Let's not stay to find out. Let's move!" Says Koishi, who wants to hurry up and leave as soon as possible.

Orin then dispels the bullets, Hitodama and Kechibi, and she then shows Koishi's her approval, saying, "good plan." She then goes to take her cart from Koishi's hand.

Orin and Koishi both leave.

"They're getting away!" Yells Cirno as she then turns to look at Letty. Confused on her decision as a guard, she questions her, "why'd you have to go and do that, Letty? We are the guards of this place. We can't let anyone pass."

Letty closers her eyes as she then talks to Cirno in response to her complaint, "oh, shut up, Cirno." She then opens her eyes and then says to Cirno that letting them go was not, in all actuality, her intention, "it's not like I wanted either of them to live, anyway."

Letty's own words begin to confuse Cirno. Cirno responds with, "then why'd you have to let them go? You aren't making much sense."

"Maybe it was just the way I was thinking. Generosity must have overcome me for a second when she spoke about Myouren Temple," says Letty.

But Letty's response was not at all clear for Cirno to understand. "You STILL aren't making much sense," she replies.

Letty just smirks as she then begins to talk to Cirno, but avoiding her question that she inquired, "I will let that kasha live… for now. But this will be the last time I let anyone pass. So the next time I see her or the satori, they will be as dead as door mice." So despite her not answering the question, she certainly promised Cirno both a dead kasha and satori upon their return.

"And they have to come back here again as well! Oh, how exciting!" Says a thrilled Cirno

Letty begins to lick her lips. "Yes, indeed it is. Enjoy your life while you can, kasha. It will end when you are in my presence again," she says, hoping for her return so that she can complete her job. Her job as a guard.

Meanwhile, at Myouren Temple.

Mamizou is seen walking towards the graveyard angrily as she begins to think to herself, "I can't believe that Yashima."

Mamizou's Memory

Heading back a few moments ago, Mamizou, who was in her residence, is going towards the door with a surprised look. "What the!?" She says in that shocked manner as she notices the ground crumbling and she quickly jumps to safety. "Why is the plateau so weak, here? Has Nazrin been digging tunnels to hide things or something?" She questions.

It was then a voice was heard, saying, "hehehe."

Mamizou could hear the giggling and has a hunch as to who it belonged to as she then said, "Yashima? I might have known!"

Yashima Hogo is then seen going into Mamizou's room by "walking over" the crumbled ground.

Mamizou begins to shout with an angry expression, "IT WAS YOU!"

"Oh, come off it, Teakettle! The fun ends if you mind your step! Try doing the opposite. It's really funny," says the childish Yashima, who is then giggling after telling Mamizou to not obviate his illusionary traps.

"You really are such a pest," responds Mamizou.

"But that's what children are like," explains Yashima as he then gets his bottle of sake and starts to drink from it and then stops drinking and puts it back to his side and then continues, "I just want to have my fun," hinting that his age is the reason why he pulls such pranks.

But all this does is cause Mamizou to become irritated. "You have a job at the entrance defending our beloved Myouren Temple!" She says furiously, to which she then turns her focus to his drinking habits, "and besides, what's a child doing drinking alcohol?"

"And who said I wasn't already defending it? I have my traps placed in front of the Temple, sister," says the confident Yashima. "Just a pity you can't see the funny side," he says, showing his dislike for Mamizou's behaviour as he then begins to smile.

This causes Mamizou to start twitching her mouth. "The funny side… What funny side? You are tormenting me to high heavens!" She explains.

Yashima then sighs after Mamizou's comment. Feeling saddened by this, considering it ruins his fun, he says to Mamizou, "fine… If you want me to go, I'll go. Just don't expect me to see you anytime soon, with me being a guardian and such." He then turns away and continues, "I'm off to do my duty," afterwhich he begins to leave.

"Yashima…," says a guiltful Mamizou, who then thinks to herself, "now, I just feel bad." She then goes to grab Yashima and begs him to stay, "Yashima, stay for a bit. I'm sorry about that. Just wait a…" Just as she says this, she grabs Yashima when Yashima just suddenly disappears, which caused her to stop talking. "Yashima?" She questions. "You… ," after the realisation of Yashima just being an illusion, she becomes rather annoyed as she then says, "I am going to kill that tanuki!"

End of memory

Back to the present and Mamizou, still moving towards the graveyard, begins to think to herself, "I really did think that, that was him that entered my room. Why does he keep on doing this to me? Just for the fun of it? He certainly said that he wanted to have fun. Doesn't he care about what I think at all?"

At the graveyard.

Upon her arrival, Mamizou decides to look for someone as she says to herself, "let's see if Kagi is still here." She then goes into the graveyard and looks for Kogasa as she is scheming something in advance. "She will surely teach that brat a lesson! Now where is she?" She thinks, trying to find Kogasa so that Mamizou can have her revenge. She finally finds Kogasa, thinking, "ah, there she is. Asleep again, as usual." She then tries to wake up the sleeping Kogasa by saying, "Kagi. Oh, Kagi…" This however, does not work. Realising this, she then begins to talk in a monstrous tone with Kogasa being sound asleep, "WAKE UP, KOGASA!"

This wakes Kogasa up in a freight. "WAAHHHH!" She screams.

Mamizou squints at Kogasa. "Asleep again, Kagi?" She says as she then shrugs, "what are you like?"

"Oh, it's you, Raccoon Lady," responds Kogasa, identifying Mamizou by her species.

"It's Mamizou," corrects Mamizou, "please don't forget it!"

"Oh, right," remarks Kogasa as she then sticks her tongue out after her slight mistake as she then apologises for it, "sorry about that." She begins to get up from the ground and asks Mamizou her purpose for being at the graveyard, "what do you want with me?"

"I was just thinking about getting a little bit of revenge for that torturing menace of a tanuki," explains Mamizou, who is having problems with Yashima.

"Tanuki?" Questions Kogasa as she begins to think of anyone, besides Mamizou, who fits that description. After thinking about it for a while, she comes up with an answer as she begins to talk again, "as in Yashima? But I like him…"

This causes Mamizou to become surprised. "You like him?" She questions out of curiosity, "oh, of course. You like to scare people yourself. I should not be at all surprised at this." She begins swaying her head from side to side and closing her eyes and continues, "not at all."

But Kogasa wonders what the problem with that is as it helps Kogasa survive. Why should it be any different for Yashima? And so she asks her, "what's wrong with doing that? It's the only way I live. Why is it any different with him? "

"Because he is someone that doesn't know any better. At least you have an excuse. He does it only for fun," says Mamizou, implying that Yashima's reason is not the same as Kogasa's.

Kogasa responds, "aww. Pity. I don't want to scare someone that I like," as she then thinks to herself, "not that I could," implying her low self-confidence.

They both leave the Graveyard.

They both bump into a sleeping Yashima at Myouren Temple.

"The heck? What is Yash doing sleeping in the middle of the path?" Wonders Mamizou after stumbling upon the sleeping tanuki.

Looking at Yashima with a weird look, Kogasa questions Mamizou about her decision, "you want me to scare this thing? But, Mami, he looks so innocent and, well, cute?"

Mamizou looks at Kogasa as she then responds, "you talk as if you've never seen him before."

But truth be told, that was not the it at all. "I saw him a few times in the graveyard. We would often talk and he would show me his illusions," replies Kogasa.

"It's nice to know he is friendly to some…" Says Mamizou, who is starting to see herself in an even worse off position.

Just then, someone comes up from behind the two and puts one hand on Mamizou's shoulder and another on Kogasa's shoulder.

"Hello, you two," greets Yashima, "gone off to find me, have you?"

This shocks both Kogasa and Mamizou, especially Kogasa, as they scream, "ahh!"

"I'm off, Mamizou!" Says the scared Kogasa as she then runs to the graveyard.

Mamizou turns around to look at the person. "It's you!" She says, realising that it was Yashima. But something comes to mind as she says, "hang on." She then touches Yashima, as so to make sure that it is not an illusion. Upon her discovery, she says, "it really is you. Then that means that…," leading to the conclusion that the other version of himself is the illusion.

Mamizou then turns around to look at the sleeping Yashima and carries on talking, "... that boy is really…," the illusion disappears and Mamizou sighs, "... an illusion. You went and scared Kogasa away, though."

Yashima sniggers at this. Oh all the times he decides to have fun and he inadvertently scared a couple of people. "Sorry about that," he apologises, "I suppose Kogasa has never seen this form before."

"And anyway, why are you still doing this?" Asks Mamizou.

But this question seems a bit vague to Yashima as he has no idea as to what Mamizou means, thus he begins to wonder as he then asks, "doing what?"

"Don't play dumb. You know exactly what. You keep on tricking me with those illusions of yours," explains Mamizou.

Yashima takes his kasa off and messes around with it. ""hy can't you just accept who I am? I have had a hard life, you know," he says, thinking that Mamizou still will not acknowledge him. He then puts his kasa back on and continues with her explanations, "I have not had any fun in ages. In fact, maybe none at all. Maybe I don't exactly know what fun really is. Please, don't take that away from me," begging Mamizou to not take the one thing that he likes away from him.

Mamizou looks at Yashima in a weird way. "Is this going along the lines of a sob story?" She says in a displeasing way, as she thinks she might know where this is going.

But Yashima becomes a little bit uneasy by this response. "I… I…" He says as ear rolls down his face as he then shouts at Mamizou, "I… DON'T WANT TO GO INTO IT!"

Mamizou opens her eyes wide. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that," she says, trying to make Yashima aware that he misjudged her words.

"Illusions are far better than reality in my very own eyes," says Yashima as he then begins to heighten his tone before continuing, "why should I have TO live in reality, a thing that exists only to HURT!? "

Now this comment of Yashima made Mamizou become a little bit uneasy. It was then she asks him, "Tell me this, then. Why are you trying so hard to have me killed from having a heart attack?"

Yashima begins to shout, "BECAUSE I LIKE YOU!" He then continues, expressing himself to her, "I have liked you ever since you cared for me and helped me! You were the only one who ever did care for me. Momiji was the only friend I ever had and I went to see her from time to time but… but… but THAT ALL CHANGED WHEN I BECAME A GUARDIAN! She was my love, she was a part of my life! You were the only thing left and even you were so distant from me. And now… NOW you come here saying that I am nothing but trouble."

After that speech of his, Yashima begins to cry as he believes that there is no one who will acknowledge him and so he says, "no one will be happy until I am alone and dead, away from them all. Just go, Mamizou. Just… go…"

"But…" Says Mamizou, wanting to talk.

Yashima puts his sword in front of Mamizou's face, interrupting her, and changing his form. That form being his "Child form". "This is who I am, like it or not. My master was horrible, the very people around me were horrible. I was all alone and I was ready to accept my fate. That is when Byakuren came and saved me," says Yashima, explaining a portion of his past to Mamizou.

He then takes his sword away from Mamizou. "I've said too much. I told you that I do not like to talk about my past!" He says angrily this causes Yashima to to think that what he experienced at Myouren Temple was all just a lie. "You're like a sister to me and you are the only thing that I can call a family. But I was wrong, you are just rejecting me. You are no different from everyone else. Me and you are the same and I thought I had a chance. I guess I was wrong!" He cries, thinking that he made a mistake. He runs out of the premise in tears.

"Yashima, wait!" Shouts Mamizou as she then runs after Yashima.

Outside the premises of Myouren Temple.

Yashima is seen behind a tree, crying. Crying because he thought Mamizou was rejecting him and that he could not be happy. He says to himself, "first it was my Master and now it's Mamizou. Being in Myouren Temple was meant to change my life but despair only followed me. Everyone just abandons me."

He then looks at his sword as he then begins to think about more about his past, "it once came down to this. I was ready to accept this. But then I changed my mind when I felt cared for. Mamizou…," he grips his hands and closing his eyes tightly and continues, "am I really such a pest to her? I just… I just want to feel loved. I don't want to be alone." He then begins to shout, "I DON'T WANT TO FEEL SOLITUDE ANYMORE!" Explaining that this is no longer what he wants.

Mamizou appears and sees Yashima behind the tree. "So there you are. Why are you…?" She says, going to ask something but pauses.

Yashima, who is in tears, shouts at Mamizou,"go away from me!"

But Mamizou tries desperately to apologise to Yashima about what she had said, "look, dear, I'm sorry what I said before. I didn't mean what I said."

"You are only saying that so I can come back! You don't care about me at all," Yashima says, calling Mamizou's bluff, "you are one of those people that just wants to hurt me. But just then, his brown eye begins to flicker silver for a split second.

It was then Mamizou noticed his flickering eye as she thinks about it, "what was that just now?" She then begins to ask Yashima something, "I really need to get to know you better. But how can I help you?"

"You can help by leaving me alone!" Demands Yashima, not wanting Mamizou to be near him at all. He then explains to Mamizou what it is that he wanted, which he thought he achieved when it came to Myouren Temple, " I just want to forget everything. I don't to have these memories. I've been alive for 110 years and my life has only brought me despair. I thought my life was going to change at Myouren Temple."

Yashima then explains that due to his time being there with Mamizou, he wanted to be a bit playful. Well, he is a child, after all. "I decided to have fun with you when I finally had the chance. My fun... MY FUN is only rough because I do not know what other people's view of "fun" really is." He confesses, since he has not had any fun in years, or at all, and especially since being the guardian of Myouren Temple. "And now you're saying you see me as a pest? You don't want me anymore? Really? REALLY!?" He questions.

Mamizou begins to walk towards Yashima.

Yashima gets alerted by this as he gets up and moves back a bit, away from Mamizou. "Stay away from me!" He says, awkwardly.

Mamizou takes no notices of this as she moves closer.

Yashima begins to shout, "I mean it, stay away from me! You just want to hurt me again!" Implying that he really does want Mamizou to leave him be.

Mamizou gets right up to Yashima and begins to hug him. "I'm sorry for what I did before. I didn't realise this was how you truly felt. I had a friend myself once who left this place long ago. I also felt a little bit lonely because of it. You aren't the only one who has felt that emotion. But I will be there for you if that's what you want. I will try and stay calm whenever you do those tricks of yours," she explains as she says that Yashima is not alone and that she will try to put up with his antics.

"I've just been at a loss. You caring for me, Byakuren bringing me here… Everyone finally accepting me. I thought that was finally my reality. But that reality just ended up being an illusion," Yashima says, telling Mamizou how is was relieved to be at Myouren only for all of that to crumble. He then closes his eyes tightly and continues, "my past was nothing but an illusion!"

Mamizou then explains the significance of his being here and why Byakuren chose to bring him here, "who said no one cared for you? You are here because like us, you were saved. Kogasa was discarded by her owner and Byakuren brought here here. Shou and Nazrin are also here because they were saved by Byakuren. When you look at the people here, you are looking at the same people who have had similar experiences to you."

"So come back to the temple and we can be a family again. Just you and me," she insists as she wants to be a part of Yashima in order to try and keep him happy.

Yashima puts his face right against Mamizou's chest and starts to cry immensely.

End of chapter

Next chapter: Back to Reality


	12. Back to Reality

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Yashima's memory  
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Moving away from the main story and Myouren Temple as we move back 110 years into the past to when Yashima Hogo of Takamatsu, on the island of Shikoku, was reborn as a youkai after being just an animal.

"Ah, you're waking up. Come on, young one!" someone says as he/she looks at a sleeping Yashima, prompting him to wake up after being reborn into his new life. A life as a youkai.

Yashima begins to wake up. Half asleep, he begins to make noises as he goes, "Uh? Uh…," as he begins to get up and looks around. "Where am I?" he asks as he then looks at the person and asks him/her a question, "Who're you?"

"I am your creator. I am your master, a youkai just like you," answers the aforementioned person.

Yashima gets puzzled by this response. "I am a youkai?" he asks, not realising that he was now a youkai.

The person then responds, answering his question as well as explaining where they are, "You certainly are. You're a bake-danuki and we are in the Human World and where we is called "Takamatsu"."

"Takamatsu…," repeats Yashima. "But…," he says as he then stops to look at his hands and then looks behind himself, examining himself before carrying on, questioning himself, "... what am I? I have a brown thing sticking out of me and…," he begins to touch his head and feels his ears and continues to talk, "... I'm sure these are called "ears", but they are… different."

"Ah, that…" says Yashima's master, who then begins to explain all of those apparent abnormalities, "Now, there is a reason why you are called a youkai."

"It's because I'm dead?" asks Yashima as what that person said made him think that he might possibly be dead as opposed to being alive.

"Far from it! In fact, you were dead, but then you were revived," he/she explains, "That "brown thing" that you said is your tail. You forgot what one was?"

"My memory is a bit blurry," responds Yashima as he puts a hand onto his head and carries on, "I can't remember much, sorry," taking his hand away as he implied that he does not know much about his past life.

"Hmm, what is your name?" the master says out of curiosity.

Yashima takes his hand away from his head as he then responds, "My name?" He begins to think about it as he then comes up with a conclusion, "I don't have one."

"Then let me think of one for you. Hmm… How about I call you "Yashima"?" he/she says, giving Yashima his first ever name as so the person has something to call him by, which also happened the same name as the place in Takamatsu to which they are both in.

Yashima begins to wonder. "Yashima?" he asks.

"Yes. After the type of animal that you are, a "Hage-tanuki","he/she says as the name given does not seem to be a random name that he/she chose. The person carries on talking, "In fact, how about I call you "Yashima Hogo"?" Yashima now has both a forename and a surname.

"Yashima… Hogo… So I now have a name," he says, acknowledging his new name as he then looks at the person in wonder as he asks the person, "Are you… Are you going to care for me, now?"

"Of course!" he/she says, happily. The person then explains his/her position, "That is what masters are there for. We are not like usual ones that treat servants like how they should be. You are a shikigami and you are a type of servant, but I promise you won't get that type of treatment."

But considering Yashima was reborn naked, Yashima's master decides to correct this. "Now let's get you some clothes. I am a little bit exhausted myself. So let's get you sorted out quickly," he/she says, wanting to find clothing for Yashima before his/her exhaustion takes over since he/she felt a little bit exhausted for some reason.

"Thank you, miss. Thank you for much," says Yashima as he expresses his gratitude.

Several days pass.

Yashima runs into the house that both he and his master were living in a delighted manner as he begins to show his master something that he caught. "Look, Master! Look what I found," he says.

"I'm busy, child," he/she says, implying that Yashima had caught him/her at a bad time.

Yashima becomes sad due to the uninterested person. He tries to get his/her attention again, asking, "What about playing? Can you play with me?" wanting to do something with his master.

"No!" Yashima's master shouts out as he/she throws something at him, "I told you, I am busy."

"Ow!" says Yashima, reacting to getting hit by the object, "Why did you do that to me? I can still feel pain."

"And don't I know about it. Your pain also becomes my pain," his master replies, hinting at something.

Yashima tilts his head at this rather peculiar response. "What? What do you mean?" He asks, "Was there something that you did when you…," to which he then thinks to himself about the situation, "This is awkward," and then carries on talking to his master, "... created me?"

"I performed a Ketsuyuketsu on you. It was done by giving you my own blood. And now that I did that, whenever you get hurt physically, so do I," responds the master. But of course, Ketsuyuketsu causes one to receive damage that the shikigami takes.

"Really?" Yashima says as he looks down, "Oh…" He then begins to look at the person and asks him/her about Ketsuyuketsu, "But what if the shikigami dies? You did say I was that, didn't you? What happens to the master?"

But his master does not give him the response that he was look for as he/she says, "I don't know. I suppose nothing happens. It must be the same the other way around. If the master died nothing would happen to the shikigami," being clueless over the matter.

"Oh," says Yashima.

It was then his master turned his/her attention to the dead animal that Yashima had, "And anyway, what are you doing with a dead animal? Life is not a toy."

Yashima begins to wonder due to this as he asks him/her, "It's not?"

"No! Life is precious," Yashima's master says, talking about how life is not to be wasted as he/she questions him, "Why sacrifice an animal for your own amusement?"

"B-but…," says Yashima, touching his digit fingers repeatedly as he continues, "Wasn't I an animal? Didn't you kill me?"

"I really don't know what to say to that," says Yashima's master, who does not know the right words to say. He/she then responds with what had happened and answers his questions, "Yes, I did kill you. Yes, you were an animal. And yes, you were revived."

But all this does is cause Yashima to become agitated. "So then, am I just another toy?" he says, talking back at his master.

His master begins to shout. "How dare you!? People have their own actions that they take themselves and each one depends on whether they live or die," saying more about life.

His master then explains the possibility on why he/she felt like having his/her own shikigami, "I… Well, I suppose I just wanted someone. Maybe I was lonely. Who knows? But I am just a wolf girl doing things to pass the time. You are my shikigami now and that means that you must be protected. If not, then you die."

Yashima begins to move his mouth a bit and looking like he is about to cry since this talk about life and death was causing him to become uneasy. "Miss, you're scaring me," he says.

But then the wolf girl responds to Yashima after picking up on him calling her "Miss" and gives him the correct form of address and she says, "Master. Call me "Master"."

"I, er…," he says, removing the previous expression from his face as he begins to wonder about something, "You said I was a Hage-tanuki? Does that mean there are more of me?"

"Well…," she says as she rolls her eyes and then looks at Yashima before continuing, "... I do recall another one. Mamizou I think her name was. She was another type of tanuki. She was like you, a bake-danuki."

"Hage-tanuki and bake-danuki?" says the confused Yashima as he suddenly begins scratching his head as he questions his master on what he really is, "OK, which one am I!?"

"Both. You are both, Yashima," the girl replies as she hints that he is both of those things. It was then her mind was focused on something else as she then says, "And to be truthful, you are quite… well, odd."

Yashima becomes intrigued by this comment. "Odd? How am I odd?" he curiously asks.

"It's nothing major. It's just that I don't know that many males," the wolf girl implies as she seems to mostly, if not only, encounter females.

"Me being a male is strange? If I was like you, I would be normal?" Yashima enquired as this was confusing to him.

The wolf girl put her hands against her face. "Oh, dear," she says, getting embarrassed by Yashima's comment as she begins to sway her head and continues, "Me and my big mouth! This is embarrassing!" She then takes her hands away from her face and stops moving her head and looks at Yashima as she manages to calm down. "That isn't what I meant," she says as she informs Yashima what she really meant, "You not being what is known as a female has nothing to do with that. It just seemed strange to me because I have not seen many males."

"Oh?" He says as he then closes his eyes and smiles as he asks her, "So I am unique?"

The wolf girl begins to twitch her mouth and begins to blush, feeling embarrassed yet again. "I, er... No! I mean… Oh, dear…" She says as she cannot quite construct a full sentence as she seems to be affected by Yashima's earlier comment. She then thinks to herself, "This is getting nowhere."

After noticing that his master does not seem to be busy due to her talking to him, he then asks her something, "Hehe, since you aren't busy, can we play?"

Finally calmed down yet again, the wolf girl begins to walk to the door as she then answers him, "Maybe later. I have to go out, now."

"Can I come with you?" Yashima requests.

"No. Stay here where it's safe," she says to Yashima, wanting him to be out of harm's way.

Yashima then begins to put on a cute, sad face in front of her as he looks at her and begs her to let him come with her, "Oh, please. Please, Master."

His master then begins to shout, "No!" After denying Yashima request, she then lowers her tone to continue, telling him, "Either you stay here and you live, or you go out and you die," stating what would happen if he were to join her. "The world is a big place and I want you safe for now" She says as she then leaves the building.

A disappointed Yashima frowns by this as he says, "Pity."

Two hours pass and Yashima waits for his master to return home. If only she had taken him with her. "I'm bored. When is she back?" he asks himself as he starts playing with something that he found on a table. "Maybe this should keep me busy," he says as he then goes to play with the object.

After doing so, he giggles a bit and then wonders. It was then that he questions about he own existence. "But why was I put into this life anyway? She said that she was alone. Is that the real reason why I'm here? There must be more than just that," he says, as he then expresses his disappointment with, "Aww…" Just as he said this he hears the door open. "Huh?" he says, in response to the door opening.

The wolf girl has finally arrived! Upon going into the building, she suddenly collapses whilst panting, her mouth no longer being covered.

Yashima is in shock after seeing the state to which he saw his master in. "Master!" He shouts as he then goes to her. Concerned for his master's health, he asks her, "Are you alright, Master?"

The wolf girl then shoves Yashima's hand away as she responds, "I'm OK," saying there is nothing wrong. But Yashima seems to be a little bit bothersome towards her as she then says, "Just leave me alone and stop being a pest."

"What?" Yashima says as he did not expect his master to say that.

The wolf girl then begins to get up as she says to Yashima, "I'll be fine in a moment or so," as there is apparently nothing to worry about. As she seems to not need Yashima's concern, she then begins to pulls the neck gaiter back over her mouth and then continues to talk to Yashima, "Just leave me alone, OK?"

"But…" Yashima says, wanting to say something in response to her comment.

But his master interrupts and shouts at him, "Just shut up and do as you're told!" She then goes into a room and slams the door shut.

Yashima begins to wonder about her and why she was acting in this way as he says, "I wish I knew what was wrong with Master. She seems tense."

In the room after entering it, the wolf girl is still panting as she then thinks to herself, "Just how much energy did I use? I feel exhausted. Is this the price for creating a shikigami? This is not good. So not only did I give him my power, but it seems like my very life is at risk," as she thinks that creating Yashima was a very bad decision as she seems to think that she caused herself to become vulnerable. She grips her hands tightly as she comes up with a decision and thinks, "That's settled. He has to go." Yashima was hers to protect and now she does not want him anymore.

The next day, Yashima finds himself a kasa as he was looking around the building. Wanting to use it he decides that he wants to wear it, but upon thinking that it could obstruct his view he decided not to put it on his head. Instead, he then decided to put it on his back but since it would restrict the movement of his tail, he broke a part of it off as so his tail could move freely. He then put the kasa on his back and ties it, wrapping the string around his body.

"Yasshu…" says the wolf girl, addressing him by another name, a Japanese form of "Yash" after walking into the room.

Yashima then looks at the her, after hearing her call out his alternate name, with curiosity. "Hmm?" he mumbles.

It was then his master begins to ask something of him, "Tell me, can you do something for me?"

"Like what?" he says as he wants a response from his master since it could be that she wants him to do some work for her.

"Like transform or something," she says, "You are a tanuki after all. And you are my shikigami with my power. Surely you can do something." All she wanted was for Yashima to show her a little bit of his power. He had her power within him, so surely he could at least be able to do something such as transform.

"Transforming? Is that turning into other things and people?" Yashima asks, trying to understand what his master had ordered him to do. But this leaves to uncertainty as he says to her, "Erm… Don't think I can."

The wolf girl gets angered by this and begins to prompt him by saying, "Try…"

Yashims begins to look scared by her angered expression. "Don't do that!" he yelps.

She then says it again, "Try it for me, Shikigami," promptly.

"Erm… OK," Yashima says as he then does what his master had ordered him to do. He tries hard to transform but fails and then tries desperately and still fails. After his failure, he begins to apologise, "I'm sorry. I just can't."

"You can't?" she says as she then repeats herself but in a more annoyed expression, "YOU CAN'T!?"

This causes Yashima to become worried. "N-n-no. I'm sorry," he apologises.

"You mean to say that I spent my own power, my own blood for a worthless shikigami?" she says in a disappointed manner. After going to Yashima, she begins to say more. "My…," she slaps Yashima in the face, "... effort…," she slaps him again and continues, "... gone to waste… ," she slaps him yet again and continues, "... for one that can't do a simple…," she then begins to grab him and bring him up before continuing, "... MAGIC TRICK!?" It was then she threw him towards the wall.

Yashima reacts to the pain after hitting his face against wall, "Ow! Stop it, Master!" He demanded.

After throwing him at the wall, she begins to walk towards Yashima. "And to top it off, I have to feel your own pain. The pain that should only be felt by you alone. It's not emotional pain, oh no. It is from your physical pain! Your pain should not be…," she explains as producing Yashima has added more to her painful decision and her regret. She then punches Yashima, which then sends him flying to the other side of the room as she then finishes off her sentence, "... MINE!"

It was then Yashima began to plead for his master to stop hurting him. He did not understand why she was doing this to him. "Master, please stop! I don't understand. I thought you cared about me. I thought I mattered to you. Stop treating me like this!" He pleaded. He carried on, asking her to stop, "Please." She begins to walk up to him and this time, be begins to yell as he repeats himself after seeing her come towards him, "PLEASE!"

The wolf girl stops walking. "Me? Care about you? I can never care about a useless youkai like yourself! You can die for all I care!" she says in such a cold-hearted way as she never needed a disappointment such as Yashima and that is exactly what she saw Yashima as.

She begins to punch Yashima repeatedly until he falls down to the floor and she then stamps on his face. "Why should I even show my own feelings to you? It's a matter of dying or surviving nevertheless. If you can't adapt, then perish within my eyes," she says as she then kicks him away. "I'm leaving," she announces as she begins to walk in the opposite direction.

"So, I never mattered to you? You're saying that I am a disgusting sight to you?" he asks as he wants confirmation on what his master truly thought. She had said that she did not need him anymore and Yashima wanted to know is she really meant it.

The wolf girl then stops and turns around to look at Yashima as so to answer him face to face, "That is correct. You have good hearing."

"You want me to die, do you?" He says, now that he knows that his master really meant it when she did not need him and said that he should die and it did not matter to her, "You wish that I… I… I die?" He then closes his eyes. "Master…," he says as he suddenly strikes his master and stabs her right in the back with one of his hands, which goes right through her body and out the chest and continues, "... you can just die right here instead."

"Why, you little…," she cannot continue her sentence as she coughs out blood and then dies.

Yashima begins to take his hand from out of the body and then throws the body onto the floor. "I never had a master to begin with. I just had you, a somebody, a stranger," he says as he implied that he was alone to begin with. He then feels pain in his head and then puts his hands on his head. "What happened?" he questioned as he appears to have forgotten what had just happened.

But he then looks in the direction of his dead master and looks shocked by what he saw. "What? Did I do that? But how could I?" he questions as he begins to panic as he believes that he killed his former master, "How could I!? Maybe she did deserve to die, but I killed my master." He looks at his hands, to which one was coated in blood as he questions himself, "Just what am I exactly? I'm not just a Hage-tanuki, am I?" He begins to run outside in a panicked state.

Outside the building.

He begins to look disturbed after running out of the building in a panic, disturbed at the fact he killed someone. "I killed a person. I killed my master. My horrible, so-called master. I really am disgusting!" he says, despising himself as he begins to walk as there is no need to be here anymore. Not in the state that he is in.

"I can't stay here anymore. I need to find somewhere else. I can't stay here with the blood on my hands," he says as staying in this area will only bring back sad memories. But this got him thinking as he really did have blood on a hand of his and he needed to clean it off and he says, "And with that said, I need to clean my hands up."

Yashima begins to lick the blood off of his hand and arm and then cringes and then stops licking as the taste was not to his liking. "So disgusting!" he says with disgust. "I will have to clean up after," he says, leaving it alone so he can find something to clean it up with later as he begins walking.

Yashima begins to walk into the forest-like part of Takamatsu until he comes to the edge of the mountain, which is called "Mt. Yashima". He then begins to walk down it but as he did, he tripped, causing him to fall down and tumble down the mountain which destroys the kasa that he had on his back in the process. After rolling down the mountain he begins to pick himself up and put his hand on his arm as he cringes due to the slight pain. He recovers from this as the kasa that was tied to his body falls off of him as he begins to stand up. Seeing it fall from him, he decides to leave it on the ground and also tries to remove the leaves and such that he had rolled into, but his clothes are still a little bit dirty. He then begins to walk yet again and walks out of Takamatsu.

After walking for quite some time, Yashima comes across a village. "I see houses. Maybe there'll be people," he says as he thinks that the village might be populated. He then tries to think about what his master had said, "Did Master say that this was the Human World? Then there will be humans over there?" He walks over to the village since if his master said they were in the Human World, then it must have humans living there. "I need to check," he says as he walks over to it due to curiosity.

Yashima then goes into the village.

Yashima, upon entering, begins to wipe the dry blood from his arm and hand. "I'm here. Finally," he says briefly, as he begins to shout as he sees people, "He-hello? Who's there?"

"It's a demon! Run!" Shouts out one of the humans as a few people run away in panic.

"Why are they running away?" he asks after hearing what they said about himself, "I'm not a demon. I'm just a youkai." He then begins to cry and says, "Why don't people like me?"

Just then, a human appears and sees the crying Yashima as the person says to him "Who and what are you? You look weird. You aren't one of us at all."

Yashima slowly stops crying. "Who are you?" he asks the human, "Have you come to play with me?" He then asks the person, This is a human village, isn't it?" wanting to know if this was a human village since he was told he was in the Human World.

"This is a human village," responds the human as he/she continues, "And that is why…," he/she suddenly kicks Yashima away and continues, "... you should not be here."

Yashima begins to cough out saliva after being kicked relatively hard. "What was that for?" he asks as he complains about the impact, "That hurt!"

Just then, more humans come.

"What is an animal like you doing here?" says the other human as he/she looks at Yashima's appearance as it looks unfamiliar, "Can I even call you that? You look human, but you are completed different."

"You are a freak!" implies the first human, insulting Yashima.

"And a freak like you needs to be dealt with," says the third human, who invites Yashima's supposed punishment.

They then start beating up Yashima until he falls to the ground and stays there.

"A foreign freak has no right to be here. You see why those people left? They are scared. Scared of you. You are not an ordinary person and they have not seen anything like you before. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to kill you at some point," says the first human who made it clear that these people did not understand Yashima's appearance and where afraid because of it.

"So, this is what life is? Is this why I was created? To be used like a toy? I was never loved or cared for to begin with. I was just a slave," thinks Yashima who is under the conclusion that his life is nothing but torture. He was just a slave and nothing more. He begins to cry and carries on thinking to himself, "I was just a nobody used for other people's amusement! To be discarded or to be hurt!" It was then he began to cry immensely and carries on thinking, taking into consideration the harsh reality, "This reality. This is MY reality. Why is it so cruel?"

The first human starts mocking Yashima due to his crying, "Aww, is the baby now crying?"

"Maybe he just needs another lesson. Should I start again?" says the third human, who wants to hurt Yashima again.

"No, let's leave it," declines the human, who referred to Yashima as an "it" since that is what he/she saw him ask, "Leave it to leave on its on." The human then begins to leave with the other two humans.

Yashima Hogo begins to get up as he begins to speak. "Abandon me, will you?" he asks, finally stands up as there appears to be a change within Yashima. "Hate me, will you?" he then says as his hair slowly starts to become silver and has another question, "Attack me, with you?" Afterwhich his tail slowly starts to become silver as he continues to question, "Ostracise me, will you?" After saying that, both of his eyes slowly start to turn silver. "You want me to die…," he says as he begins to shout in a monstrous tone as his voice deepens as he finishes off his sentence, "... DO YOU!?"

One of the humans turns around after hearing him shouting out something. "What?" the human says. But just then, Yashima strikes him/her and bites deep into his neck. After screaming, Yashima breaks his neck, killing him/her.

The second human begins to panic as this freights the person. "You really are a monster!" the person says as Yashima just seems to be more than just some person. "RUN!" the person adds as he/she begins to leave in order to get to safety.

Yashima, now in Bake-Danuki Mode, notices one of the humans running away in fear. "You aren't going anywhere!" he growled, as a sword appears in his right hand and he runs up to the human like an animal on all fours whilst gripping onto his sword. When he catches up with the human, he stabs his/her chest with the sword. He then begins to walk up to the other human as he then says, "And you're next."

The human is on the ground and looking scared. In fact, the human is petrified as he/she is frozen in fear. Unable to do anything and knowing that he/she is next to die, he/she begins to plead to Yashima, begging him to not hurt him/her, "Please, don't! I'm sorry for what I did!"

"My appearance disgusted you. You wanted to hurt me because of who I am. You did not care about me at all. And now you want me to show mercy? No… Not a chance," says the blood-thirsty Yashima, who denies the humans beg for survival as he/she deserves to die. Yashima then prepares his sword, ready to give out judgement.

"NOOO!" yells the human as Yashima then cuts him/her in half with his sword, showing no mercy or hesitation whatsoever.

Yashima begins to smirk after killing all three of the humans who had hurt him as he says, "That felt pleasantly good." He then removes the expression and takes notice of the village that he was in, saying, "But now, I need to do something to this hateful village," believing that the entire village was evil.

Yashima then ascends to the sky as he begins to overlook the village. "May this village rot away with the rest of the scum," he condemns as he puts his sword in front of himself in a horizontal position, with his other hand holding the tip and multiple blue tanuki begin to appear and then he begins to say something, "Sword Dance Go: "Yashima no Hage-tanuki""

The tanuki-like bullets begin to move towards the village after Yashima moves his sword in front of himself. The tanuki move to each building and start to explode, setting the buildings ablaze. There are then screams that even Yashima can hear. Soon enough, the entire village is destroyed and set ablaze and Yashima slowly starts to descend.

With the village destroyed and having killed everyone that came into contact with him, including his master, who was the closest to him, he now sees himself as being alone in the world as he says, "I am now truly alone. No one to hurt me, no one to love me, no one to care for me. This world is so cruel that I can't stand it anymore."

Just then, his hair changes from silver to brown, leaving just the tips to remain silver, his tail begins to turn brown, but leaving silver stripes and his right eye becomes brown again, leaving his left eye to remain silver. His sword disappears as his voice then returns to normal.

Yashima, now acting more like himself again as he returns to normal, realises what he did and is shocked by it. "What… have I done? Did I destroy this village?" he says, uncertain as to who the culprit was, but he then begins to turn his attention upon himself. "No… NO!" he shouts as he just realised who it really was as he then shouts out, "I destroyed an entire village!"

He brings himself to the ground. Saddened by this outcome, he lowers his voice and begins to cry as he says, "But yet, they deserved to die. They… No, everyone hated me. Everyone just wanted to leave me to one side," saying that he sort of felt like they deserved to die for causing him so much trouble. He continues, "I was never cared for and those humans…," he begins to close his eyes tightly before continuing as this is just getting him oh so emotional, "They all wanted me dead! Because I was different. What is this life? I was created by my master but was hurt by her. I wanted to go somewhere but was hurt again."

He begins to get up and starts walking away from the village, but continues crying as he then quavers, "And now, I am feeling these emotions. I am such a wreck. Such a wreck that it hurts!"

Yashima had walked out of the village and into Awaji island via a bridge where he kept on walking until he went through it and onto the other side. He ate what he could find and drank water wherever he found it as he also took the time to wash his own clothing that had been dirtied. Whilst in Awaji island, he could swear that he saw someone like himself, a tanuki, like a tanuki of that island specifically. However he thought that he had only imagined it. He ended up leaving Awaji island via yet another bridge that he found and continued onwards. Days had passed since he left of Takamatsu and the hauntings of his past as he hopes to escape it all; the pain, the misery, the entirety of it all, as he tries to find somewhere else to live… Somewhere he can call "home" and seeks refuge. One day, he ended up wandering into Gensokyo unknowingly.

"I've been walking for ages and I've not seen any new buildings. Just trees and this path," he says as he has not seen any new buildings, "I need to find somewhere to live, but where should I go? No one wants me." He closes his eyes tightly, cringing at the thought of it, "No one at all."

He then suddenly stops as he sees his journey as being pointless now. "I can't continue. Not like this. This is my life and it was nothing but trouble and despair. Why can't I just exit this life?" He then begins to pick up a big stick that he finds on the ground as he talks him not being a thing at all and that he should… disappear, "It would be so much better if I was not a part of reality."

Yashima then begins to place the stick vertically in front of his chest and begins to shake his hand as he hesitates in doing what he was planning on doing. "I can't do it. I really can't do it," he says after hesitating as it seems to be a sign to him, "does that mean that I have to continue this life of torment?" But this is not what he himself wants as he then says, "No! I want to be alone. I can't bare this pain anymore." It was then he began to shout, "I CANNOT BARE TO FEEL THIS PAIN THAT PEOPLE GIVE ME ANYMORE!"

He begins to remember his past and then begins to cry because of the painful memories that had entered his mind. Why did he decide to think about this? His master and the village? "My master said I was useless, they said I was not needed. They all died in the end and I felt like they got what they deserved. I am no one," he says as he expressed how he felt. He begins to shout and get emotional again, "I AM A NOTHING! GOOD-BYE, PAINFUL MEMORIES!"

Yashima then commits seppuku rather than stabbing his chest and then falls down to the ground.

Yashima, now on the ground and bleeding with the stick embedded in him, but not bleeding profusely due to it, stops crying and begins to talk a little bit quietly as he is relieved to have been able to do the one thing that he wanted to do. "I finally… did it. I can now exit reality. But what is death like? Will I be recognised? Will I be… remembered?" After his questioning, he coughs out blood as he then continues, "At least I can now find peace. No more pain… No... more su… suffering. Reality is so cruel… So… so full of ha… te." He then begins to lose consciousness.  
______________________________  
End of memory… and chapter  
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Next chapter: This is My Fantasy!


	13. This is My Fantasy!

Moving back into the main story now and away from Yashima's tragic past, we return to where the other chapter ended off at, outside the Myouren Temple premises.

Mamizou is hugging a crying Yashima for comfort as she then tries to get him to calm down. "You can stop crying, now," she prompts, wanting him to stop shedding tears as she would then reassure him, "No one's going to hurt you. Come on, let's go back to the temple. Just you and me."

However this causes Yashima to become confused. First Mamizou says one thing and the next, another. "I don't understand. You said you wanted to care for me and now... Th-then you say that you want to discard me. I don't understand your mixed feelings about me!"

He thought that Mamizou did not understand him and like before, he thought she knew him better and that she would understand him. "I have lived a cruel life and I just wanted to be with someone!" he explains as he just wanted someone to be with and who would just care for him. He then grabs tight hold of Mamizou as she hugged him, saying what he had felt in the past, "I've been lonely for so long!"

Mamizou then begins to look at Yashima as she moves him back a bit, removing the hug as Yashima stops crying. Mamizou then tries to explain herself to Yashima and implies that what he said was out of her knowledge, "Listen, I just never knew how you felt. I never knew your life was so hard for you. I did not realise that it was you that I cared for those several years ago," to which the reason why did not know it was him that cared for was she had forgotten all about him. She continued, "When you came to me again, you were just a stranger to me. I had forgotten all about you. You made me realise all of that."

After hearing this from Mamizou, Yashima begins to sniffle as a tear would stay in place in both eyes.

"You say that you only played pranks on me and annoyed me because you liked me? Because you wanted fun?" says Mamizou as she tries to figure out Yashima's own sense of fun. And apparently he does it because he likes her?

"I see… You have not had fun in years, you said, or maybe none at all. You have no idea what fun really is and that is why you were so rough on me, I take it," she says as due to Yashima's hard life, it seemed like Yashima had not had much fun at all, "But if this is your idea of "fun"...," she then begins to close her eyes and smile at Yashima before continuing, "... I think I can manage now that I know what you are really doing." Now acknowledging what it is that Yashima has been doing and why he does it, Mamizou opens her eyes and keeps smiling as she then goes to say something to him, something that involves something that she did for him years back, "But you are not alone here and I will be here to care for you, if it is allowed. I will even bring you food when you are on duty…," she then moves her eyes left to right all of a sudden, "... Well, out here." she then turns and looks back at Yashima.

"My power is the one thing that reminds me of my past," implies Yashima, which is weird considering he does not want to be reminded of his own past due to how cruel it was to him. He carries on, explaining himself further, "My i-i-illusions... All I ever wanted was to leave reality. I was going to give up on life altogether and then Byakuren came and saved me," so Yashima, due to what he had to witness and suffer, tried to commit suicide and Byakuren apparently saved him. But how exactly? And why exactly did she save him?

Even Yashima did not understand that as he continues with that he has to say, "I didn't know why she did it. I thought it was so she could just torture me like all the rest. But then I came here, to Myouren Temple. She brought me here. Everyone did not hate me, they did not see me as a nothing and they did not mind me. And you… you cared for me. I thought I finally left reality and found my fantasy." Yashima was relieved to find that Byakuren was not who he thought her to be. She brought him to his new home where he was safe, a home where no one ostracised him and did not hate him which eventually led to Mamizou caring for him. He begins to cry again as he would explain what his power seems to basically mean to him, "These illusions show the one thing that I wanted! No more pain… No more suffering… No more torment… I just wanted to find peace!"

"And there won't. Not in this place. You said that you wanted peace? Well, this is the place the find it. You are a resident at Myouren Temple, so make yourself at home!" says Mamizou as she explained that he won't be hurt as long as he says at Myouren Temple and the people would make him feel safe here. "We are all in the same boat as one another and…," implying that the people are, in a way, the same as Yashima, but before she could continue she would begin to feel something moving against her hips. Noticing this, she would carry on, "... Hey, what are you…," this would then cause her to giggle as Mamizou then tries to finish off her sentence, "...doing?"

That sensation that Mamizou could feel was just Yashima tickling her by the hips, even though he was still crying a little bit at this time. But perhaps there was a reason as to why he was doing this.

"Hey! Yashima. That…," says Mamizou to her surprise as she then closes an eye and giggles again as she talks, due to his actions, "... That tickles!"

Yashima slowly stops crying and begins to laugh and then his laughter gradually gets louder as he tickles Mamizou, however it was Mamizou's response that was causing him to laugh as he was actually enjoying this.

Struggling to talk as she laughs, Mamizou says this, "St-st-stop it!" as she wanted the tickling to cease. "Why are you…?" She continues to laugh and then grabs one of Yashima's hands as she tries to calm herself down and gets rid of her laughter. "I find I've had enough, Yashima," she would look at Yashima after saying this.

"Hehe, should we go now, Sis?" asks the now happy Yashima, as he wants to go back into the premise.

Mamizou is seen smiling after Yashima's question as she then replies, "Yes, let's go. But…," something begins to bother her as to wonder about something, "... your traps. Where did you put them?" She wonders this as Yashima has a habit of leaving traps near the premises of Myouren Temple, not to mention he had used them a few times within the premises.

Yashima begins to walk away from Mamizou, looking around the area to look for his traps, which are only visible to himself as no one else can see them. He did not leave any traps in the vicinity, however after he looked around for any traps he then began to think in a "where did I put them?" sense.

Mamizou then walks over to Yashima as she saw him just standing there and not saying anything. "Yashima… Don't do this to me, please." She puts her hand on Yashima's head and turns it around to face her, giving him an annoyed expression as she has this to say, "I don't want to end up in one of those nasty illusions of yours again. Show me where you put them."

However Mamizou's annoyed-like expression leaves Yashima scared, but it also brings concerns. "And after everything you said before, you still do not like my own fun. You…," he then puts on a sad expression before continuing on, asking something that is related to what was previously said, "... don't like me, do you?"

"I, er… Well…," says a struggling Mamizou, unsure as to what to say. She then goes to think to herself due to the words that she had chosen, "I should shut up from time to time."

"You were lying to me, weren't you?" says Yashima as he really does want to confirmation on her feelings for him as what she had said could have been insincere. "Please, Teakettle…," by the slip of the tongue, he accidentally called her by that nickname of his for her as his eyes begin to widen after the quick realisation, "I mean, Mamizou!"

Sighing, Mamizou begins to try and get rid of Yashima's doubts, "Everything I said was the truth. I do care about you, even if it is just a little bit." She also says this to him, "But you can stop with the Bunbuku rubbish right now!" after catching him calling her by that name.

Yashima immediately gets shocked from Mamizou's outburst. "AAHHHH! Please don't hurt me!" he pleads.

"Alright, then. Maybe when we go into the premise," so she says as she does nothing more, not even hurting him at that time since that is what Yashima did not expect to get. Well, not yet, according to what was said. She then begins to walk on ahead.

What Mamizou said basically causes Yashima sweat and twitch his mouth as he thought that Mamizou was more or less postponing that physical pain as she hinted that she would "hurt him" afterwards. "Now I really do want her to hit one of my traps," he thought, as he really did want her to hit a trap of his, but only because of what she said. Perhaps he just wanted to escape the outcome.

After walking ahead, Mamizou then stops as she calls for Yashima, "Yashima. Where are the traps, hun?"

"Oh, no," thinks Yashima as he gulps before talking to Mamizou, "It's alright. There aren't any here, Mami. No need to mind your step."

Mamizou looks at Yashima in a weird way as she would ask him just to be use as well as on the safe side, "Are you sure?"

"Oh course. You came here without touching any," he confirms as he demonstrates it so himself, "Watch!" and he does so by running towards Myouren Temple as he childishly lets out a rather loud, "WWEEEE!"

Upon seeing this, Mamizou opens her eyes wide. "I can never take any chances with that one…" Yashima's mischievous nature is obviously unnerving to Mamizou, despite the both of them being tanuki regardless, and she then begins to walk up towards Myouren Temple.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Gensokyo.

A happy Koishi begins to sing "Last Liar Standing" whilst walking with Orin along a path after escaping both Letty and Cirno, "That's exactly what I wanna break. 'Cause it's always driving me so mad. This is no place for you to live my life!"

However Koishi's behaviour causes Orin to just look at her in a weird way. "Are you sure you're OK?" she asks out of curiosity.

"Never better!" Koishi responds as she then chuckles.

After walking for so long, Orin then stops as she begins to ache. "Ow!" she groans she then begins to cringe due to the pain, "I think I better sit down."

Koishi looks at Orin as she noticed that she was in pain. "What's wrong?" she asks her, "Are you injured?" She then brings her hands to her mouth, hoping that it had nothing to do with her in particular, "Please do not say that I did that!"

"No, Koishi, it was never you, thankfully," replies Orin to assure Koishi that her pain, her injuries, were not caused by her.

"Thank Suwako for that…," responds Koishi as she sighed in relief.

"I was just in a fight with someone else, really," says Orin as this had been due to her battle with Chen rather than Letty and Cirno, plus Orin had already said that Koishi was not responsible for it. She then begins to sit down on the ground, trying to make herself in a better position so that she is not standing on her legs as she had not properly healed. "I never fully recovered. Both my leg and arm are still hurting. I think I need to rest a bit more," she explains as she implies that they should have a little break, for her sake.

Koishi then begins to wonder, "And Satori did not give you anything for it?"

Orin gets alerted by what was just said as she remembers something that was said by Satori before she left, "She did say that she had something, but I left anyway. But she might have been joking." So even though Satori mentioned something that could help soothe Orin or rid the pain altogether, she does doubt that she was being serious.

Koishi begins to smirk as she also winks before talking to Orin about what she said about Satori, "Oh, knowing her, she definitely had some form of treatment."

Orin would just begin to giggle a little bit for some strange reason. "Now you tell me…!" she says as it appears that Satori might not have been joking about having some type of treatment. Orin then begins to hurt again as she reacts to the pain, causing her to put a hand over the part that had been hurting. "Koishi, you don't have anything to help, do you?" she asks as this was the one thing that was on her mind. The pain had been soothe before as she was fine and all of the sudden the pain came back.

Koishi would put both her hands in the air, closes her eyes, sways her head from side to side and then brings her hands down and opens her eyes. "I came here suddenly. Satori didn't give me anything. But wait…," she then begins to think to herself carefully as something seemed quite odd about Orin's comment, "... why would Satori give me any medicine for you?" She looks at Orin in a weird way before asking about what she has been doing, "Have you been in another fight?"

This question causes Orin to get nervous and gulps. "Well, I…," she struggles on what to say as she then begins to sweat, which is surely odd for a hell cat, "I…" She still cannot even finish her comment.

"I thought so!" shouts Koishi as she seems to have caught Orin out, "And I bet you lost, as well."

Bringing her hand against the back of her head and rubbing it, Orin tries to correct Koishi and therefore tries clarify herself, "Well, no. Not "lost". I just…"

"You just wanted another corpse because of your own nature," says Koishi as she assumes what Orin has been up to.

Orin then tries to explain herself yet again, "It was all a misunderstanding." She takes her hand away from her head before continuing, "Satori wanted me to follow someone and I gladly wanted to bring a corpse with me. "

But what Orin said made no sense to her as she the became puzzled. "How did you end up in a fight because of that?" she asked as this had no relation to what she herself, said before.

"I told you, it was a misunderstanding," repeats a rather vague Orin as she then continues, saying something that is meant to make it clear, "Someone else was there and she thought I killed the wrong person."

After hearing this, Koishi starts to get surprised. "Wow, this person must be strong to have been able to overpower you," she says in that surprised sense as she would have thought that Orin might have been a bit more powerful than that.

However Orin becomes irritated by this and looks at Koishi in a weird way, "Oh, rub it in, why don't you!"

Koishi would then hum what she was singing before, which was "Last Liar Standing," for a little bit as she would then stop to talk to Orin as she decides to go along with her intention, "OK, Orin, if you want to stay here for a bit, then fine."

Now that Koishi is letting her do what she wants, Orin goes to lie down as she then closes her eyes and tries to go to sleep. "Nice. Wake me up in afterwards," she says as she does this.

"Are you serious!?" Koishi shouts as she thought that all Orin wanted to sit down for a moment, at least until she felt a little bit better.

Orin opens up one eye and looks at Koishi as she says to her, "Do you want to pull a miracle? My arm and leg need attention," hinting at the fact that she just wants some rest.

Koishi becomes silent and a little bit of sweat rolls down her face. Shortly after that, she begins to talk as she would want Orin to just use an alternative, "Can't we just wait around for a little bit?"

Orin apparently gets saddened by this as she begins to fake her crying. "You don't care about me at all, do you? It doesn't bother you that your sister's pet is hurt!" she cries as Koishi wants her to do things differently.

"You were this dramatic before I was contained as well…," says the dissatisfied Koishi.

Orin then stops her fake crying. "Alright, then. We will play it your way," says Orin, who is actually a little bit saddened by this as she begins to get up off the ground, but is Koishi does not want her to fall asleep Orin will want her to do something, "I will not go to sleep. But you better have some convalescence!"

"I will see what I can do, Orin," responds Koishi as she then begins to smile, "I'll see what I can do."

Meanwhile, back at Myouren Temple.

At the premises of Myouren Temple, Nazrin is seen sighing because of something. "Here I am wondering what Yashima is doing and the answer was right in my face. When will he learn?" she complains.

Shou then appears, presumably from the temple, as she walks towards Nazin and greets her, "Hello, Nazrin! What's the matter?"

Nazrin looks at Shou upon her arrival as she responds back and answers her on what was bothering her, "Hello, Shou. Nothing, really. It's just that damn tanuki of a guardian."

"You should be less strict with him. He is only playing," she suggests as she then implies what Yashima basically does.

Nazrin begins to get shocked at what Shou said as to her as to her, Yashima has little time for fun or any such thing and then responds to her, "What!? Shou, how could you? A guardian is merely just a guard of the temple."

But Shou gives off a weird look since she did not appreciate what was just said by Nazrin. "And you are just merely my underling," she says.

"B-b-but…," stutters Nazrin.

"Give it a rest, Nazrin," says the interrupting Shou, "He has spent most of his life along on his own. Just put yourself in his shoes. How would you like to live all on your lonesome?"

"I, err…," Nazrin then rolls her eyes whilst saying this as she then looks a little bit glum, "I suppose you are right." She sighs after this as she decides to do what she said, "Fine, then. I will give him breaks from time to time," since he actually did spend most of his life on his own and Shou presumably did not want Nazrin to make his life hard.

"Good. That is now settled!" says the smiling Shou.

After saying that, Nazrin begins to think about something. "Where is Byakuren anyway?" she wonders.

However Shou wonders about this too, as she is uncertain on her whereabouts. "Hmm… I am not really sure. And she's been gone for ages," she responds.

But Nazrin asks a question that was quite sudden to say the least, "Is she dead?"

This then causes Shou to alerted by that rather drastic question. "Oh, Nazrin, don't say that!" she says in a higher pitched tone as she then lowers it to carry on, "She must be finding more youkai or something. She can't have gone off for personal reasons. It has been far too long for that," thinking that her absence cannot to be do with something such as her visiting her brother's grave.

"I hope everything's OK with her…," says the hopeful Nazrin.

"She knows what she is doing. Anyway, I'm off," says Shou before she leaves.

After she leaves, Nazin egins to see Yashima running around and facepalms. "Oh, for God's sake! Not this again," she whines as he is apparently doing another one of his antics.

Mamizou is also seen by Nazrin shortly after and as she is running after Yashima for some reason. "Hey, Yashima! Give me back my sake bottle!" Ah… There is the reason.

Yashima begins to laugh as he is running from Mamizou, distancing himself from her so that she cannot get him as she wants her bottle back. " Aww, why? I only want a sip," says the innocent Yashima, as he just wants a drink.

"You have your own!" Mamizou states that Yashima did not need to take hers and she is discontent with him taking hers.

"Come and get it, then ," Yashima prompts as he then begins to climb up the temple, putting his sword in his mouth and then taking it out when he gets to the top of the temple as he tries to make sure Mamizou cannot get to him, "Hehe, if you can, that is!"

Mamizou twitches her eye after he scaled the temple. "Oh, when I get my hands on you, Yashima… Won't you be sorry…," she threatens.

Due to the actions of both Mamizou and Yashima, especially Yashima, Nazin begins to panic and get nervous as she shouts, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON SACRED GROUND!?"

"Oh, Nazrin," says Mamizou, noticing Nazrin and then puts her hand behind her head and closes her eyes nervously as tries to explain, "Well, you see… Things got a bit carried away."

Nazrin just looks at Mamizou in a weird way. "No doubt about that," she says as that had sort of become obvious to her already. She then looks at Yashima and shouts at him, "Yashima! Get down from there!"

"Aww, come on, Nazrin. Don't be like that. I only took a bottle from the Teakettle to have a bit of fun," Nazrin was ruining Yashima's own enjoyment, but he made one mistake...

Upon hearing Yashima say that particular name, she becomes a bit frustrated at him and goes to remind him, "Yashima… What did I say to you before?"

Yashima waves his hands around in a panic as she goes to correct himself, "Mamizou, I mean! MAMIZOU!" Stops waving his hands and and puts them over his face and says, "Don't hurt me," as he did not her to harm him for that hiccup.

Nazrin herself begins to get irritated as she is fed up with this episode, "This is not the place for all of this…"

"Did I annoy Nazrin again?" wonders Yashima as he tilts his head.

As a direct answer to him, in her own way, Nazrin fires a bullet in Yashima's direction and Yashima quickly jumps off of the building as so to dodge it and she made sure that it did not hit the temple, "Does THAT answer your question?"

Yashima begins to sniffle. "You don't have to be mean about it!" he whimpered

Mamizou facepalms and begins to think to herself as she noticed this behaviour of Yashima's before and hopes that it does not go into that direction, "He better not cry again. I've had enough of that for one day."

"Mamizou…," says Nazrin as she tries to her Mamizou's attention.

She would then look at Nazrin after she said that as she goes, "Hmm?"

"Do you know what Byakuren is doing?" Nazrin asks as this had discussed this with Shou before.

Fortunately for her, Mamizou seems to know something about Byakuren as she replies with, "She went out not too long ago. She said she had to do something."

"Really? But she has been gone for so long. I wonder what she is doing, exactly?" Nazrin asks

"Probably the same that she did with…," Mamizou say as she moves her head to a side, back and forth, towards Yashima and also moves an ear into that direction and then stops and looks at Nazrin, indicating that she is talking about Yashima, "... that little thing."

In annoyance, Yashima catches onto what she said as she did not call him by his name, as she knew that she was talking about him, "Hey! That "little thing" has a name, Sis!"

"Oh, just think of it as a cute nickname, Yash," she says, referring to him as "Yash" this time.

Not wanting to stay here any longer, Nazrin begins to leave. "I will leave you both to it. (Stops) Just be careful, Yashima. Hmm… Or would you prefer "Yash" or maybe "Yasshu"?" she asks, wondering what she should call him by.

But Yashima does not want which one of the two gets called by as he just looks to his side and responds, "Oh, any will do."

"Alright, then, Yasshu," Nazrin then carries on walking and leaves after saying this.

"I'll be off as well," Yashima would then begin to run in his childish manner as he yells out, "WWEEEE!"

Mamizou begins to shout, "Hey!" as she then goes after Yashima, "Get back here!"

They both leave.

At Mamizou's residence.

After going to the residence, Yashima noticed that Mamizou had run after him. "Oh, no. The tanuki followed me," he says as he then begins to laugh.

Mamizou pants a little bit after catching up to him. "There you are, trouble maker! I believe you have something of mine," she says as she still wants her sake bottle back.

"What…," he says as he then looks at the bottle and therefore continuing, "... this thing?" But before he would even bother to give it back, he begins to drink out of it and then throws it to Mamizou. "You can have it, now," he says.

Mamizou grabs the bottle and begins to shake it to see if there was still some left. After realising that there was nothing left, she then complains, "You drank it all again."

Yashima then begins to smirk as he remarks, "But it was SOOO delicious." After drinking it, he begins to wobble as he either drank too much or it could just be something else as surely he should be used to this by now, "Uh, oh," he reacts.

Narrowing her eyes and looking at Yashima, Mamizou pay attention as Yashima appears drunk. She then thinks to herself, "He's drunk… What a shame."

"Feel strange," he says, making it seem like he does not know that he is drunk. It could very well be his first time? He begins to giggle due to his state as he turns his attention to Mamizou again and tries to get her to do something, "Come and play with me, you badger!"

However what Yashima had called her basically shocked as she goes to ask what exactly he just said, "Th-th-th… What did you call me!?"

Yashima begins to wave his sword around and also swishes his own tail about as he was becoming playful in his intoxicated state, "You 'eard me." Not repeating himself, he begins to pounce on Mamizou as he then says, "Chase!"

Mamizou quickly catches Yashima by the hands and then goes to take his sword away before it did any damage. "I'll be taking…," she then manages to take his sword off of him since he would be dangerous with it equipped, as she then carries on to finish her sentence, "... that."

"Aww... Badger no fun. Do-don't be mean like that," says the displeasured Yashima, still calling Mamizou by that other animal.

"I can't tell which is worse, being called a badger or being called a bunbuku. And his adult form is more… tame, I think. His child form is much more wild. Now this…," thinks Mamizou as she is under the impression that his "Adult form" is much… better than his "Child form." But since he in this state...

"Give me my sword back," demands Yashima as he tries to get the sword from Mamizou, "Give me, give me!"

"No! Wait until you are sober and then I'll give it to you," she says as she does not want Yashima to handle his sword as he might just end up being just a little bit dangerous with it in his state.

However this causes Yashima to become sad. "Sister is being mean. Sister won't give me what I want," he complains as he then lightly hits Mamizou with his hand a few times as he continues to whinge, "Why are you so mean!?"

"Shut it, bake-danuki!" says Mamizou in a louder tone of voice as she is beginning to get tired of Yashima's attitude, not like he can help himself.

"I just want my sword back!" says the persistent Yashima as he still wants Mamizou to give back his sword as he feel more comfortable with it, "I will feel a lot be-better with it. How else to you want me to…," as he is talking, he begins to feel weird inside before continuing, "... play?"

Mamizou becomes alerted at this as she noticed something odd about Yashima. Believing what it could be, she hopes for the better as she then thinks to herself, " "Oh, no! He better not about to be doing what I think he is going to do."

Yashima, now feeling a little bit poorly, puts a both of his hands on his belly as he continues to feel weird inside as he then begins to get a build-up of saliva from within he mouth as he then says, "I don't feel too well, Mami. I need to exit myself."

"Don't you even dare! If you are going to do that, DO IT OUTSIDE!" yell Yashima, prompting him to do his business outside of her residence as she is now certain as to what is going to happen.

Yashima begins to get that weird sensation in his stomach again as it intensifies and begins to go upward, "Too late, Teakettle," he was as he bends down, facing the ground, as he opens his mouth and becomes sick on the ground.

"NNOOOOO!" she yells and grabs Yashima and takes him outside of the room and throws him outside the residence relatively quickly, however she failed to do it beforehand, "Back into your natural habitat!"

After being thrown out by Mamizou, Yashima would then try to get up as he says in place with his knees to the ground as he begins to pant. "That was tiring. Now I need to sleep for bit. Tanuki sleepy," he says as falls onto the floor after trying to keep himself steady with his arms for support and goes to sleep.

Mamizou looks at Yashima as she notices him going to sleep. "Good! Stay asleep for the time being," says a slightly relieved Mamizou as for her, he cannot cause anymore trouble. She would then turn to look inside her residence as she walks and sighs at the mess that was made, "Now I have to clean this mess up. Nazrin might now where they are." She then goes outside whilst stepping over Yashima, who was right by the entrance as she did not throw him that far. "What was it that you said? "Mind your step"?" She mimics as she then smirks before making a comment on that little catchphrase of his, "Not a bad warning."

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house.

Yukari is through the books on the shelf in the house as she is trying to look for something in particular.

Ran is in a room next to her as she tries to get Chen's attention, "Chen! Your bath's nearly ready."

"Let's see…," says Yukari, focusing on the books as she run a finger along them as she looks at then, ""The Tale of The Gallant Jiraiya"… "Journey to the West"… "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter"…"

Not getting a response, Ran begins to shout from another room, "Chen!"

Chen finally goes into the bathroom as she then looks away after coming in and says, "I… I don't want to."

"What do you mean, you don't want to?" asks Ran.

"I don't know what that stuff is," she says as she has no idea what water is, despite the fact she has seen it before.

"It's water… Did you not see it before?" responds Ran in wonder.

"I did once, in the area with trees," to which that area that she is mentioned is a rather familiar one.

But Ran seems to get the gist on what she means."The lake?" she says as she then begins to remember something before saying more, "Oh, back when you ran away after being created."

However what Ran just said about when she was created and that she ran away started to bother Chen as she began to wiggle her mouth as she remembers how Ran tried to kill her, even though she did not want to do that.

"But you are safe now, Chen. I will protect you. And even though you sort of like a servant, you'll not be treated poorly," says Ran as she tries to reassure Chen.

"Really? Promise?" says Chen as she begins to show a little bit more life after she was in dismay.

Ran begins to smile as she promises Chen that this is exactly what she means, "I Promise. That was the past and this is the present. What is happening now is not what happened before."

From the other room, after her attention was diverted, Yukari has heard both Ran and Chen as she seems happy with the result of them being nice to one another, "Well, those two seem to be getting along quite nicely. It's always nice to have someone around, is it not?"

End of chapter

Next chapter: Home, Sweet Home


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